Most countries likely to fall short of achieving the 2015 Millenium Development Goals

The new Global Monitoring Report 2008 is warning that most countries are likely to fall short on the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which have a due date of 2015.  World Bank president Bob Zoellick stresses that eradicating extreme poverty and hunger (Goal 1) is fundamental to making progress on additional goals like reducing child mortality.  This graph shows the actual as well as projected decline in the population of people living on $1 a day in the world's regions, including East Asia and the Pacific. In general the GMR 2008 finds that most countries are off track to meet the MDGs based on current trends, with fragile states falling behind most.  Check out the interactive online atlas of the MDGs.  On Sunday Zoellick warned that the recent surge in food prices could push 100 million people deeper into poverty without a decisive response to the crisis.