Jakarta - The 2015 deadline set by the United Nations Millennium Declaration to improve human development is fast approaching. Goals that 189 countries signed onto include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability by developing a global partnership. The commitments make up the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

There have been positive developments in the last nine years, but as the 2009 UN Millennium Report admits, the world is “moving too slowly to meet the goals”. The report specifically mentions regions that are slow in achieving MDGs: sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia.