We are at the half-way point in the great global campaign to address the unacceptable divide between rich and poor. The 2000 Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – agreed by 189 Governments from the North and South - have provided a global framework to measure the world’s progress to reduce poverty by the year 2015. It is unique for 2 reasons. First because it has specific measurable goals and second because it is about a 15 year campaign. Campaigns come and go and it is difficult to keep sustained attention over a long period of time.

The MDGs help keep attention going and growing. The High Level Event on MDGs in September, called by the UN Secretary-General is another opportunity to reinvigorate the commitments of every country. Where do we stand on the MDGs? Some progress has been made. 15 years ago one in three people lived on less than a dollar a day. We are now at one in five. More children have enrolled in primary education and child mortality has declined globally. The tuberculosis epidemic appears to be on the verge of decline and key interventions to control malaria have been expanded. But this is not enough. We have only 7 and a half years left and one billion people still live in extreme poverty. More than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water. About 2 billion people have no regular access to reliable energy services. 6,000 people die of AIDS each day. 750 million adults cannot read. And one of the most striking statistics is that the odds that a woman will die from complications in pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa are 1 in 16 over the course of her lifetime, compared to 1 in 3,800 in the developed world. And those who carry almost zero responsibility for climate change are bearing the brunt of its effects, while the gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening.