Article Link: http://www.exchangepress.com/article/well-being-of-children-of-the-world/5019508/
In September 2000, building upon a decade of major United Nations conferences and summits, world leaders came together at United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets �" with a deadline of 2015 �" that have become known as the “Millennium Development Goals.” Included among these goals were these targets:• Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day.
• Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
• Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
• Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
With less than five years to go in meeting these commitments, progress is lagging. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently observed: “It is clear that improvements in the lives of the poor have been unacceptably slow, and some hard-won gains are being eroded by the climate, food, and economic crises.”
Despite a decade of development efforts, the life chances of a child depend significantly on geography. ...