MDG 8

What have the millennium development goals achieved?

Latin America

The UN has called the MDGs ‘the most successful anti-poverty movement in history’, but what progress has been made on each of the goals?

Children fish from their home just above the water line in the Belen neighbourhood of Iquitos, Peru. Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP

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Achilleas Galatsidas, Finbarr Sheehy

Monday 6 July 2015 16.45 BSTLast modified on Tuesday 8 September 201513.11 BST

The millennium development goals have targeted eight key areas – poverty,education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, disease, theenvironment and global partnership. Each goal is supported by 21 specific targets and more than 60 indicators. Below, we’ve looked at what has been achieved on some of the targets within each goal.

MDG 1: The number of people living on less than $1.25 a day has been reduced from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015, although the target of halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger was narrowly missed.

MDG 2: Primary school enrolment figures have shown an impressive rise, but the goal of achieving universal primary education has just been missed, with the net enrolment rate increasing from 83% in 2000 to 91% this year.

MDG 3: About two-thirds of developing countries have achieved gender parity in primary education.

MDG 4: The child mortality rate has reduced by more than half over the past 25 years – falling from 90 to 43 deaths per 1,000 live births – but it has failed to meet the MDG target of a drop of two-thirds.

MDG 5: The global maternal mortality ratio has fallen by nearly half – short of the two-thirds reduction the MDGs aimed for.

MDG 6: The target of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/Aids by 2015 has not been met, although the number of new HIV infections fell by around 40% between 2000 and 2013.

MDG 7: Some 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water since 1990, so the target of halving the proportion of people without access to improved sources of water was achieved in 2010 – five years ahead of schedule. However, 663 million people across the world still do not have access to improved drinking water.

MDG 8: Between 2000 and 2014, overseas development assistance from rich nations to developing countries increased by 66% in real terms, and in 2013 reached the record figure of $134.8bn (£80.3bn).