United Nations Says World Headed Toward Failure on Targets for Reducing Poverty

Without drastic measures the world will fail to meet UN Millennium Development Goals, according to the 2005 Human Development Report released today, one week ahead of a UN summit in New York City to assess the goals. The goals include reducing extreme poverty by half, reducing child mortality by two-thirds, and achieving universal primary education by 2015. Since the UN Development Fund's first report in 1990, more than 130 million people have been lifted out of poverty and life expectancy has increased by two years in developing nations. But in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS is dramatically reducing life expectancy and slowing economic and social development. HIV/AIDS caused the single greatest reversal in human development, causing 3 million deaths in 2003 and infecting another 5 million people.

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