Are we hitting the Millennium Goals?

Improvements in health services to the world’s most-neglected communities in the last 20 years mean fewer children die than would otherwise have done – in fact, 12,000 lives are being saved every day.

The promise available to us in the last years of the Millennium Development Goals is that we can reduce these 8.1 million annual deaths even further.

With good education, living in caring communities and given opportunities for a life of work and service, those millions of healthy children will help their neighbourhoods and nations to blossom into self-supporting, sustainable contributors to a better world for all.

This week, the United Nations produced its annual report on progress toward the Millennium Goals, whose final deadline is in 2015. You can read it here.

There is much to celebrate, along with significant needs that remain to be addressed.

Global poverty continues to fall dramatically, and the picture is made to look even better by the rapid growth in the economies of China and some of its East Asian neighbours. Hunger remains great in South-East Asia, however. Sub-Saharan Africa remains behind on many targets, with growth threatened by a looming famine provoked by the worst drought in 60 years.

On the other hand, these poorest regions have done well in some areas. In South Asia and North Africa, almost all children now have access to primary education. Rates of schooling and prevention of malaria have soared in sub-Saharan Africa – partly because it starts from a lower place but also because several governments have committed real resources to these priorities.

Significantly, however, when it comes to child deaths, the rates in sub-Saharan Africa remain stubbornly higher than those in the rest of the world – and, in fact, the disparity is getting worse. All the 31 countries in which more than one in 10 children die before their fifth birthday are in Africa save one, Afghanistan.

Access is the key

If those with the least access to resources are to join in the generally-improving trend, we must all pay attention not only to weaker regions, but to neglected areas within nations, and even within communities. The averaged country-level results disguise a world of distinction between those who can join their country’s progress, and those who cannot.

World Vision remains committed to being a partner with families, communities and governments in every region of the world.

Our model of transformational development and our Child Well-being Aspirations commit us to continue to refine our focus on the most-vulnerable children – the poorest, those who are displaced or in urban slums, those in conflict zones and fragile states, those with disabilities, or even just girls who take second place in so many arenas of life.

I hope the UN’s Millennium Development Goal review will give you encouragement that relief, development and advocacy efforts are working. Please consider partnering with World Vision as we seek to bring fullness of life to every child.