ABSTRACT
With only three years to go before the MDG deadline, the UN Millennium Development Goals Report for 2012 highlights some impressive progress: extreme poverty has fallen in every region; the target to halve the proportion of people without access to improved sources of water has been met; and parity has been achieved in primary education between boys and girls. Whilst other goals and targets have not yet been met there has been considerable progress. For example, the world is on track to achieve the target of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of tuberculosis; access to treatment for people living with HIV has increased in all regions; and global malaria deaths have declined (WHO, 2012). However a number of MDG targets have showed much less improvement and are unlikely to meet their 2015 target. For example, progress in improving maternal health and reducing maternal deaths; access to improved sources of water remain lower in rural than urban areas; and gender inequality persists, with women continuing to face societal discrimination, with violence against women undermining the efforts to achieve all MDGs (UN, 2012).
