{"id":52761,"date":"2007-07-03T19:47:06","date_gmt":"2007-07-03T19:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/?post_type=one_press&p=52761"},"modified":"2007-07-03T19:47:06","modified_gmt":"2007-07-03T19:47:06","slug":"one-spotlights-mid-point-progress-on-mdgs","status":"publish","type":"one_press","link":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/press\/one-spotlights-mid-point-progress-on-mdgs\/","title":{"rendered":"ONE Spotlights Mid-point Progress on MDGs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington<\/strong>, DC<\/strong> – <\/strong>ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History highlighted both areas of accomplishment and deficiency included in the recently released UN Millennium Development Goals 2007 Report. The report tracks the progress the developing countries and their development partners are making in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015. The 2007 report marks the midpoint in measuring progress toward achieving these goals.<\/p>\n

“The UN MDG Report shows that we are marking progress in our quest to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, however we must step up our pace in order to achieve them by 2015,” Kimberly Cadena, ONE Campaign spokesperson, said. “As it stands now, only North Africa, of the eight regional groups, is on target to achieve all of the MDGs by 2015. The biggest obstacles for the seven other regional groups are lack of employment opportunities for the youngest members of the workforce, gender inequalities, the increasing scarcity of clean water and the high prevalence of HIV.”<\/p>\n

Cadena continued, “Significant progress has been made in some areas, including toward the goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015. The proportion of people worldwide living on the equivalent of a dollar a day has fallen from 32 percent to 19 percent, meaning 270 million people are no longer living in the worst conditions. If the trend continues, the MDG poverty reduction goal will be met.”<\/p>\n

“In order to reach the MDG goals by 2015, the next President of the United States must make this important, lifesaving work a high priority of his or her foreign policy. ONE Vote ’08 is ONE’s initiative to engage the presidential candidates on issues of extreme poverty and global disease, bringing to their attention the importance of making costed, proven solutions to these problems part of their foreign policy platform. Making them a priority is not only a matter of doing the right thing and helping those that need our assistance the most; it is also a matter of national security. America’s work to provide medicines, basic education and other crucial assistance in the world’s poorest countries builds goodwill for our nation and increases those we are able to count among America’s friends around the world,” Cadena concluded.<\/p>\n

We’ve come a long way:<\/strong><\/p>\n