Progress on Health-Related MDGs

The Millennium Development Goals were set with the target deadline of 2015. We probably don't have to tell you -- we are not even close. In fact, MDG 5 (reduce maternal mortality) is the most off-track of all the MDGs, as stated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. And according to a mid-way report card from the WHO, the progress on MDG5 is still unacceptably slow. 

"Areas where there has been little or no movement are notably maternal and newborn health. An estimated 37% of deaths among children aged under five occurs in the first month of life, and most of them in the first week of life," said Dr. Ties Boerma, Director of WHO’s Department of Health Statistics and Informatics. "While the data are patchy and incomplete, it appears that the regions with the least progress are those where levels of maternal mortality are the highest."

Among other findings was this stat: Adolescent pregnancy rates remain high. Globally, there were 48 births for every 1000 women aged 15–19 years in 2006, a small decline from 51 per 1000 in the year 2000.