The Millennium Development Goals: Progress so far

Ban Ki-moon speaks during the Millennium Development Goals Summit. — United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks during the Millennium Development Goals Summit at United Nations headquarters in New York. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

Today world leaders gather in New York to discuss ways of accelerating progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. With the 2015 target date looming some are looking more achievable than others.

Here we take a closer look at three of the goals for a taste of what has been achieved so far, and what is left to accomplish.

MDG 1, end poverty and hunger, looks like one of the most achievable, despite the World Bank's prediction that as a result of the global economic crisis 53 million more people will remain in extreme poverty by 2015 than otherwise would have.

There have been some remarkable success stories. Ghana has reduced hunger by three quarters, from 34% in 1991 to 8% in 2005, and in Ethiopia the percentage of the population that was undernourished fell from 71% in 1991 to 46% in 2005. In stark contrast is the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the percentage of the population going hungry increased from 29% to 75% over the same time period.

MDG 2, achieve universal primary education, is looking increasingly unlikely. However, in terms of enrolment in, as opposed to completion of, primary school education there have been some real improvements. Take, for example, Tanzania where the number of children starting primary school has risen from 50.7% to 99.6% since 1991; or Mali which saw a massive leap from 23.4% to 74.7%.

MDG 4, to reduce the under five mortality rate by two thirds, looks certain to fail. By 2007 the rate had only dropped by a third. However there have been vast improvements in some countries. Vietnam saw the number of children dying before their fifth birthday drop from 56 in every 1000 (1990) to 14 (2008); Turkey has dropped their rate from 84 to 22 and Peru's fell from 81 to 24. In contrast Kenya saw its child mortality rate increase from 105 to 128 per 1000.