[ti:World Bank Sees Progress on Development Goals] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Development Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English [00:03.97]Development Report. [00:05.83]The World Bank says [00:07.51]most developing countries [00:09.44]have made important progress [00:11.99]toward the United Nations' [00:13.80]Millennium Development Goals. [00:16.47]Last week the international lender [00:19.89]released its yearly World [00:22.26]Development Indicators. [00:24.25]Hundreds of indicators are used [00:26.99]to measure progress in areas [00:29.66]such as education, health, poverty, [00:33.39]the environment and trade. [00:35.82]One of the Millennium [00:37.81]Development Goals [00:39.05]is to reduce by half the number [00:42.47]of people living in extreme [00:44.90]poverty by twenty fifteen. [00:47.51]Out of eighty-seven countries [00:50.25]with data available, forty-nine [00:53.29]seem likely to reach that goal. [00:55.72]"Extreme poverty" is defined [00:59.36]as earning less than one dollar a day. [01:03.00]Another goal is to make education [01:06.05]available to all young children. [01:08.84]The report shows that [01:11.46]in two thousand seven, [01:13.08]seven out of ten children lived [01:16.68]in developing countries that [01:18.86]had met or were close [01:20.85]to meeting that goal. [01:22.16]Also, thirty-nine countries [01:25.20]have achieved or are likely [01:28.36]to achieve the goal of reducing [01:30.48]child death rates. The target [01:33.90]is a two-thirds reduction [01:36.39]by twenty fifteen. [01:38.63]And the report from the World Bank [01:41.24]shows the first reduction [01:43.48]in AIDS-related deaths. [01:45.84]But even with all the progress, [01:48.89]there is still a long way to go [01:51.87]to reach all eight goals approved [01:55.29]by world leaders ten years ago. [01:58.28]This is especially true [02:00.83]in sub-Saharan Africa, which falls [02:03.94]behind on all of the goals. [02:06.87]Eric Swanson is a program manager [02:10.16]for the World Development Indicators. [02:13.15]ERIC SWANSON: "You have had a decade [02:16.69]or more in Africa of very slow [02:18.75]economic progress in the nineties. [02:20.36]You've had civil war [02:21.98]and other disruptions, [02:24.59]you've had poor governance [02:26.15]in many countries that has not [02:28.20]allowed the economy to grow and, [02:30.25]in particular, has not allowed [02:31.93]poor people to share [02:33.11]in the benefits of growth." [02:34.55]Still, he points to some hopeful signs [02:37.22]-- including a large reduction [02:39.71]in the child death rate in Malawi. [02:42.88]ERIC SWANSON: "Malawi is a landlocked state, [02:45.18]it is one of the ones that we tend [02:47.79]to worry most about, [02:48.79]and yet it has demonstrated that [02:51.34]when you focus attention on [02:52.89]a problem you can make progress." [02:54.45]Last week the World Bank also [02:57.31]launched a new "open data initiative." [03:00.86]The bank will make its data on [03:03.34]living conditions around the world [03:05.77] publicly available. Officials say [03:09.38]this will make it easier to measure [03:11.74]the effects of policies and develop [03:15.23]new solutions to help the world's poor. [03:18.58]And that's the VOA Special English [03:22.81]Development Report, [03:24.56]written by June Simms. [03:26.61]You can comment on our programs [03:29.78]and learn about other [03:32.08]development issues at 51voa.com. [03:38.05]You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts. [03:43.59]You can also follow us on Facebook, [03:47.20]Twitter, YouTube and iTunes [03:50.74]at VOA Learning English. [03:53.67]I'm Steve Ember.