§ Mr. WyattTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress has been made toward the 2015 targets for reducing poverty. [53711]
§ Clare ShortLatest forecasts from the World Bank suggest that globally, meeting the 2015 target of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty is attainable. There has been progress. During the 1990s, the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day in the developing world fell from 29 per cent. in 1990, to 23 per cent. in 1999. This was mainly due to the substantial progress made during the 1990s in east Asia, and in particular China.
In the developing world, progress has also been made during the 1990s against almost all the other 2015 Millennium Development targets. The proportion of children completing a full course of primary school 16W increased from 68 per cent. to 73 per cent.; the under-five mortality rate decreased from 88 to 84 deaths per 1,000 births; and the proportion of people with access to an improved water source increased from 73 per cent. to 79 per cent.
However, to meet all of the 2015 targets progress must be improved. The sub-Saharan African region presents the biggest challenge to meeting the 2015 targets. We need an enormous effort internationally to accelerate progress in Africa. My Department is dedicated to do all in its power to accelerate progress towards the targets.
A detailed description of progress towards all the 2015 targets is contained in a recent World bank publication: World Development Indicators 2002, which can be found at the following website: http://www.worldbank.org/ata/ wdi2002/worldview.pdf.