Situation on health targets “is hardly any better” than it was 10 years ago

A concerted effort is needed to put the health related millennium development goals (MDGs) back on track, say participants at the Action for Global Health coalition’s UK policy conference.

Representatives from key health and development charities met this week to discuss strategies to accelerate progress towards the health goals in the run up to next September’s MDG review summit.

Participants heard that, 10 years after world leaders promised action to reduce the number of children dying before their fifth birthday, lower the numbers of women dying in childbirth, and bring the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis to a stop, “the situation is hardly any better today than it was then.”

Progress on MDG 4, reducing child mortality by two thirds by 2015, has …