Many Asian countries falling short of global development goals
17 Oct '06
3 min read
While the Asia-Pacific region as a whole is on track to achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), progress in many individual countries is slow and performance on some of the vital targets – including infant mortality and access to basic sanitation – is unsatisfactory, according to a new United Nations joint report released today.
The report – Millennium Development Goals: Progress in Asia and the Pacific 2006 – is produced by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The Asian Development Bank (ADB) was also involved in its preparation.
Stating that the “average progress, and relative performance” of the region is no reason for early celebration, the report points out that the “absolute size of social and economic deprivation remains enormous,” highlighting that two thirds of Asia – or a total of 1.5 billion people – is still without access to basic sanitation.
“Much remains to be done if governments in the region are serious about delivering the MDG promises to their poor and to achieve sustainable development,” says UNESCAP's Statistics Division Chief Pietro Gennari, referring to the eight goals set by the UN Millennium summit of 2000 to dramatically slash poverty, illiteracy, maternal and infant mortality and a host of other global ills by 2015.
“At present, too many countries that score low on the progress or status of the education and health targets commitonly a small proportion of their GDP (gross domestic product) to these sectors. And countries of most concern in the region are often among those not receiving enough from trade or aid.”
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