Unattained Millennium Development Goals to be continued after 2015: UN official

The United Nations will carry the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight anti-poverty targets to be reached by the end of this year, into the post-2015 development agenda, a senior UN official told press here Monday.

"(The) unfinished business of (the) MDGs will be carried on into the future sustainable development agenda," said UN Under- Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo, at a press conference to brief on the global progress of the MDGs.

"They (the MDGs) will continue to be implemented until the goals and targets are reached," Wu said, reflecting on the mixed findings of the final Millennium Development Goals Report released Monday.

At present, the United Nations is leading all member states in joint efforts to hammer out the Sustainable Development Goals, which will measure progress from 2016 to 2030 and is expected to be adopted in September to replaced the MDGs.

This year is very significant for the United Nations as it transitions from the Millennium Development Goals, which were agreed to by United Nations member states in 2000, to the Sustainable Development Goals.

The final MDGs report contained some good news, particularly in the area of poverty eradication.

According to Wu, more than one billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty.

In addition to poverty eradication, the MDGs also measured progress on other development issues including hunger, primary education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, HIV/ AIDS and malaria, the environment, and global cooperation.

However, because of the ambitious nature of the MDGs, many goals and targets were not met.

For example, while mortality for children aged less than five years old dropped by 53 percent, this was not enough to meet the MDGs target, which aimed for reducing the child mortality rate by two-thirds.

Likewise, maternal mortality -- mothers dying during pregnancy or childbirth -- dropped by 45 percent, yet this did not meet the ambitious target of cutting the ratio by three-quarters.

Wu also acknowledged that progress had varied between countries and regions.

In addition to unequal progress across regions, Wu said that other forms of inequality also persisted, including gender inequality, gaps between the rich and poor and gaps between urban and rural areas, and that progress has been undermined by climate change and conflict.

"Conflicts remain an enormous threat to human development," Wu said. "By the end of 2014, conflicts had forced over 60 million to abandon their homes, the highest level recorded since the end of the Second World War."

UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon also admitted the shortfalls of the MDGs in a speech given Monday at the launch of the report in Oslo, Norway.

"We are keenly aware of where we have come up short," Ban said.

"Progress has not reached everyone," he said. "Too many people have been left behind, particularly the poorest and those disadvantaged because of their sex, age, disability, ethnicity or geographic location."

"The lessons from the MDGs can be our springboard for future progress," Ban said, referring to the Sustainable Development Goals, a part of the post-2015 development agenda which aims at leaving nobody behind. Endite