Two United Nations report on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have called for greater cooperation among the countries around to world to meet anti-poverty goals while a British think tank report talked about considerable progress made by India on meeting MDGs.

Here are three reports. 

United Nations report

The UN report talks of the shortfall of aid tune to $20 billion pledged by the G8 countries. “Despite aid flows at an all-time high of $120 billion in 2009, among the most urgent areas identified in the report is a current shortfall of about $20 billion in the annual level of aid as agreed five years ago by the Group of Eight (G8).”

“Though Official Development Assistance (ODA) is expected to rise to $126 billion in 2010, it will not be enough to meet the agreed target, meaning that the Gleneagles pledges are unlikely to be met by the end of this year, when they are scheduled to expire,” said the report titled ‘The Global Partnership for Development at Critical Juncture.’

The report is part of MDG Gap Task Force report – 2010.

“Poorer employment opportunities around the world are slowing progress towards poverty reduction,” the report mentioned. It cautioned that if such is the response then the MDGs commitment wouldn’t be achieved by 2015.

Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger is Goal-1 of the MDGs.

The report also listed other failures. “The Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations remains stalled. Debt burdens have increased, with a growing number of developing countries at high risk or in debt distress. And rising prices are hampering access to medicines, while investment in technology has weakened.”

The report also cautioned about the MDGs commitment. “With only five years until the 2015 deadline, enormous gaps remain in the delivery of MDG 8 commitments.”

It noted the gaps between haves and haves-not on technology access. “While there are more cell phone subscriptions in the developed world than there are people, developing countries have reached a penetration rate of only 57 percent. The proportion of internet users is 64 percent in the developed world, and 18 percent in the developing world, requiring further investment in this area.” 

The report was released last week in New York.  

UNCTAD report

A report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) called for big investment in least developed countries to meet the MDGs.

“Making macroeconomic policies more development sensitive is particularly important for least developed countries (LDCs),” the report noted.

The report also urged countries to work on MDG-related development framework that incorporates significant external financing of fiscal deficits.

Read the report.

ODI report

A comprehensive report by the Overseas Development Institute, Britain's leading think-tank on international development, assessed country-by-country progress on MDGs in the last decade.

The report put India and China’s progress on MDGs in the bracket of the absolute progress category list – the performers’ category.

In terms of poverty reduction, the report mentioned that India has improved since 2006. In terms of education, the report noted, “Recent education data suggest strong progress on education, with improvements in net primary enrolment from 85 percent to 94 percent between 2000 and 2006, which classifies India as a top 15 performer.”

The report mentioned that health care is still a problem in India as it does not reach to all sections of society. “Access to maternal health care differs widely between the two countries, however: 98 percent of births are attended by a health care professional in China and only 47 percent in India.”

In primary education, the ODI report lauded India and China’s success. “China has achieved a gender balance and India has improved significantly – from 0.77 in 1991 to 0.96 in 2006 – and joined the top 20 in terms of absolute performance.”

India’s low immunisation level was particularly mentioned in the report. “In 2007, the country had the lowest level of immunisation in the region, having been surpassed even by Afghanistan, which started the period with exceptionally low immunisation coverage (20 percent).”

Read the entire report to know how India fared on other MDGs criteria and in comparison with China where does it stand.