Several Asian countries not on track to reach development goals – UN

A new United Nations report finds that despite the region’s economic prosperity, some countries in Asia and the Pacific are not on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight targets to slash such ills as poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy by 2015.

The report entitled “Millennium Development Goals: Progress in Asia and the Pacific,” which will be released next week, notes that progress has not been uniform in the region and that some countries face challenges in reducing poverty, child malnourishment and child mortality, as well as improving water quality and sanitation.

While some developing nations in the region are making inroads in achieving the Goals, no country is on course to achieve all eight of them, according to the report, which will be launched by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Detailed assessments of each country’s pursuit of the MDGs, as well as analysis that allows for comparison with other developing regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, are included in the report.