Millennium Development Goals progress report

I finally got my hands on a really good report from the UN Millennium Campaign about the Millennium Development Goals status in 2007. Here it is! http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/mdg2007.pdf
The director of the Millennium Campaign spoke recently in Portland about this progress. A fellow Bread for the World activist, Mike Hiland, reported on Mr. Shetty's comments at www.breadblog.com. Here are some excerpts...

"The developed countries are falling short of the pledges they made in aid and debt forgiveness. Another key goal is reducing developed country agricultural subsidies and opening our markets to trade (the farm bill)."

"The positive developments include a one-third reduction in extreme poverty since 1990, and if this trend continues we will meet the goal in poverty reduction. Even in sub-Saharan Africa the number of poor has leveled off and the poverty rate has started a small decline, but we are still not on track to meet the goal here. Progress is being made in education and child mortality. We are falling short of the goals in reducing maternal mortality, the proportion of under weight children, improving basic sanitation and in the fight against AIDS.

He mentioned that the most important thing we can be doing is to demand that our leaders keep their word and meet our commitments in aid, debt forgiveness and disease prevention. He cited the key work being done by groups like The One Campaign, Bread for the World and Jubilee. Writing letters and getting the word out so more people will write letters, this was in effect our assignment and our challenge."