A new World Bank-IMF report warns that most countries will fall short on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight globally agreed development goals with a due date of 2015.

Though much of the world is set to cut extreme poverty in half by then, prospects are gravest for the goals of reducing child and maternal mortality. Serious shortfalls also likely in primary school completion, nutrition, and sanitation goals.

The report also stresses the link between environment and development and calls for urgent action on climate change. To build on hard-won gains, developing countries need support to address the links between growth, development and environmental sustainability.

“At the halfway mark to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline of 2015, the world has not made the necessary progress, but success is still possible given certain conditions”, said World Bank economist Zia Qureshi, lead author of this year’s Global Monitoring Report. “While much of the world is on track to halve extreme poverty by the deadline, prospects are much graver for the goals of reducing child and maternal mortality, and serious shortfalls are also expected in education, nutrition, and sanitation. On current trends, Sub-Saharan Africa could miss all the MDGs, despite impressive growth performance of recent years”
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