A billion people across the globe will live in extreme poverty in 2015, according to calculated estimates by the United Nations and the World Bank. The data was released in Bogota, Colombia, during a conference on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
In 2011, it was estimated that by 2015, 883 million people worldwide would be living in extreme conditions, according to the Spanish news agency Efe.
The estimates were released by the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Helen Clark, and by the World Bank’s President, Mahmoud Mohieldin, both attending the conference to evaluate the MDGs performance.
The Millennium Development Goalswere officially established after the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.
All 193 United Nations’ member states and at least 23 international organisations have agreed to accomplish these goals by the year 2015.
They have eight international development goals: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, providing universal primary education, promoting equality among genders and empowering women, improving maternal health conditions, reducing child mortality rates, fighting against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, guaranteeing environmental sustainability as well as developing a global partnership for development.
The major goals of MDG are, therefore, encouraging development and equality in order to improve social and economic conditions in the world’s poorest countries.
The global economic crisis might have slowed down the progress but the world continues on track to reduce poverty.
