Millennium Development Goals

HC Deb 15 October 2002 vol 390 cc655-6W

Ann Clwyd

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if, as a result of the G8 talks, she estimates that the UK will be on target to meet the millennium development goals; and if she will make a statement. [73568]

Kevin Brennan

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment she has made of the impact of the most recent G8 meeting on the capacity of the UK Government to meet its millennium development goals; and if she will make a statement. [72987]

Clare Short

I refer my hon. Friends to the reply I gave to the Member for Cardiff, Central (Mr. Jones) on 19 September 2002,Official Report column 415W.

Mrs. Lawrence

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if the United Kingdom is on target to meet its millennium development goals. [74141]

Clare Short

Latest forecasts from the World Bank suggest that globally, meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015 is attainable. There has been progress. The proportion of people living on less than I a day in the developing world fell from 29 per cent. in 1990, to 23 per cent. in 1999.

Progress has also been made against almost all the other 2015 Millennium Development targets. The proportion of children completing a full course of primary school 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 Millennium Development Goals we must do more. The Sub-Saharan African region presents the biggest challenge to meeting the Goals. We therefore need to make an enormous effort internationally to accelerate progress in Africa. My Department is doing everything possible to help accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

A detailed description of progress towards all the Millennium Development Goals is contained in a recent World Bank publication: World Development Indicators 2002, which can be found at the following website:

http://www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2002/worldview.pdf.