MDGs

In September, world leaders will meet at the UN for a summit to discuss strategies for achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  In the meantime, the UN is kicking into high gear with a number of events, reports and behind-the-scenes politiking over the MDGs.

In four short months presidents and prime ministers from around the world will gather at a major UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals. The meeting will be a major stocktaking of what has been achieved and what has not; which policies work, and which don't; but most of all it will focus on how can governments renew their commitments to reach each of the eight MDGs by 2015.  

A new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington shows that childhood mortality rates have plummeted world-wide since 1990.   According to the report, "Worldwide mortality in children younger than 5 years has dropped from 11.9 million deaths in 1990 to 7.7 million deaths in 2010, a rate of decline that is faster than expected." 

That's good news. But it gets better:

The World Health Organization released its annual Global Health Statistics which provides a global snapshot of how the WHO's 193 member countries are progressing on the health related Millennium Development Goals.  The figures are encouraging.