Stiff challenges on millennium goals

About half the countries of West Africa are on track to reach the target set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving severe poverty and hunger by 2015, UNDP reported on Tuesday. A study in the region, UNDP said, showed that 100 million people (some 44 per cent of the 230 million people in West Africa) survive on less than US $1 a day. By 2015 the region's population will reach 300 million, magnifying the challenge of halving severe poverty, UNDP said. It added that representatives from 16 West African countries who met at a recent regional forum in Dakar, Senegal, called for greater commitment to achieving progress towards the goals. They included representatives of governments, civil society, UN agencies and other development partners. "The MDGs are very important objectives for promoting human development and poverty reduction," Abdoulie Janneh, UNDP Assistant Administrator and director of the Regional Bureau for Africa said. "The targets will be difficult to reach, particularly for Africa, but they can be achieved." So far Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal had produced reports on progress towards the MDGs and other countries are compiling their reports for release this year. Participants, UNDP said, urged every country to make greater efforts to achieve the MDGs by stepping up support for effective activities and launching new initiatives. They also pledged to set up a programme to help countries build capacity for work on the MDGs, launch a public awareness campaign, and ensure that each country produces at least one MDG report by the end of the year. Details including MDG reports for Guinea and Senegal in French are available at: www.undp.org/dpa/index.html