The long, steep path to equality

In 2000, UN members signed the Millennium Declaration, an ambitious initiative identifying improvements they would make on issues affecting billions of people. But much work remains to improve the lives of people living in slums, such as this one in the Phillipines. Photograph: DENNIS M. SABANGAN/EPA

A malnourished Indian child, Akash and his mother outside their hut at a village in Shivpuri district near Gwalior. Figures for child mortality, underweight children and other basic health indicators have showed no significant improvement in seven years. Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP

Four pupils share one textbook at Msingi Maji Matito primary school, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The shortage of textbooks is one of the problems that has arisen following Tanzania's push to improve access to universal education. Photograph: Hiroki Gomi for The Guardian

Manokaa Ali, 10, studies at a local school in a slum in Lalbag, Dhaka city, Bangladesh, where gender equality has improved significantly. Photograph: Carlos Cazalis for The Guardian

Rwanda has improved its performance on maternal mortality.
Photograph: Lisa Desai for The Guardian

Brazilian children play in a Rio de Janeiro favela. The country has seen child mortality rates drop as living standards have improved. Photograph: J.R.Ripper/Alamy

Sharing needles among injecting users is one of the primary means of spreading the HIV virus in Russia, where a hidden epidemic has seen transmission rates spiral. Photograph: Karen Kasmauski/Corbis

Afghanistan is struggling to meet its environmental targets. A shortage of clean water and no proper sanitation are two of the most severe problems affecting refugees living in the Parwan-e-duo slum, Kabul, Afghanistan. Photograph: Jason P. Howe/Oxfam

Indonesian children pack into a cybercafe in Jakarta, Indonesia. The rapidly developing, mainly Muslim country of 240 million people is emerging not just as an Asian economic power, but as a global internet power as well. Access to new technologies is a key target for signatories to the Millennium Declaration. Photograph: Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images