UN reports poor progress on millennium goals in Africa

The world is on track to meet some of the millennium development goals by 2015. But poor countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are lagging behind and need more targeted policies and aid to narrow the divide, a United Nations' progress report says.

“The challenges the goals represent are staggering. But there are clear signs of hope,” says José Antonio Ocampo, the UN undersecretary general for economic and social affairs.

In a forward to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2006, Mr Ocampo says that “disparities in progress, both among and within countries, are vast” and that “the poorest among us, mostly in remote rural areas are being …