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To What Extent Have the Millennium Development Goals Been a Success?

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To what extent have the Millennium Development Goals been a success?

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Introduction The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide a comprehensive framework through which the society can address pressing issues of poverty. The MDGs are made up of eight major objectives, which are all related to global development. In 2000, 189 world leaders signed a Millennium Declaration. The leaders set 2015 as the deadline for achieving the set MDGs. There has been a mixed result of the progress towards attaining these goals. One of the major achievements has been achieved is that there has been a major reduction of people living in extreme poverty. Accordingly, the proportion of poverty fell to less than one fifth from nearly a third between 1990 and 2004. However, the results are not consistent throughout the world. For instance, the sub-Saharan Africa has not been able to meet any of the set targets. On the contrary, there has been a significant economic growth in some parts of Asia, especially, the Eastern part. The following is a summary of the progress that has been made so far based on the 2007 Millennium Goals Report.
Extreme Poverty The percentage of people living in extreme poverty fell to 19% in 2004 from nearly a third in 2004. If this trend can continue for a long time, there is likelihood that the MDG will meet its target of halving those living on less than 1 dollar per day. As already noted, the progress towards this goal has been inconsistent throughout the world. Indeed, most of the progress in poverty reduction is attributed to the economic gains in East and Southeast Asia. The sub-Saharan Africa remains the poorest region with most people living on less than one dollar in a day. There is no equal distribution of resources in developing nations, and this

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