in Eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa have been catching up.

The world’s so-called least developed countries are now developing 4.6 times faster than the most developed countries. This means that the difference between rich and poor countries is shrinking.

For example, the average expected lifespan is rising nearly twice as fast in developing countries than in the rest of the world. Rwanda is currently in the lead, and people in this small African country can now expect to live 30 years longer on average than back in 1990.

From being near the absolute bottom of the index, even before the genocidal civil war of 1994, the country has got back on its feet and is now close to reaching a medium level of development.

”The world situation has generally become worse during the last 20 years”. This is the belief of 55 per-cent of Danish people who responded to a recent sur-vey by YouGov. But in fact, the correct answer is the exact opposite: Real global

www.worldsbestnews.dk I www.europa.eu/eyd2015

progress has been made in the last two decades: People live longer in nine of every ten countries, four in fi ve people can now read and write, and the least developed nations now have an average income almost three times higher than it was in 1990.

UNDP’s Human Development Index is a yearly benchmark of

each country’s level of development on a scale from 0.0 to 1.0. To reach the highest possible score, a country’s citizens must on average expect to live 85 years, earn the equiva-lent of $75,000 a year, and achieve at least 15 years of education.

Most European countries rank very highly in the in-dex, but recently, countries

Editorial

On Septembre 25th, world leaders will gather in the Unit-ed Nations to agree on new Global Goals. Years of negotia-tions between governments, and hearings of NGOs, busi-nesses, and global citizens, have now been condensed into 17 global development goals, encompassing every-thing from sustainable cities to better education. It’s the most ambitious plan in human his-tory; Our generation could be the one to make poverty his-tory, and also the fi rst to curtail climate change. Like the UN Millennium Goals before them, these new goals will impact the lives of billions of people. And this time, all countries commit to let children in 2030 grow up in a world without poverty and hunger.

Bomb harvest saves lives in Laos I 3 Increased aid levels pay o� I 3 We live longer I 4

September 2015

WE LIVE LONGER AND BETTERPeople of the world have made great progress in recent years. Both income, education, and lifespans have increased worldwide, according to UNDP’s yearly index of nation development.

PROGRESS

By Karoline Rahbek, World’s Best News

”� is means that the di� erence between rich and poor countries is shrinking

The most ambitious plan ever

� omas Ravn-PetersenEditor-in-chief, Worlds Best News

Photo: Finchittida FinchPhoto: Maria Fleischmann World Bank. License: CC BY-NC-ND)

A young man sells lollipops in Zambia. Here, average expected lifespan is rising – just as in the rest of the developing countries.Photo: Jeppe Gudmundsen-Holmgreen/Danida

State of progress

Did we reach the Millennium Goals?

Achieve universal primary education

91 percent of children in developing countries are now in school. Especially Africa south of Sahara has made progress: In 1990, little more than half of children were enrolled, but now it’s 80 percent.

2Reduce extreme poverty and hunger by half

We managed to achieve this goal in 2010, well ahead of schedule. In 1990, nearly half of the population of the developing countries had an income of less than $1.25 a day. Now, it’s down to 14 percent.

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Promote gender equality and empower women

Boys and girls now go to school equally, and there are twice as many women in world parliaments than 20 years ago. However, that’s still only one out of every fi ve parliament seats.

3

Reduce child mortality

Child mortality is down by more than half since 1990, when 90 out of every 1.000 children died before fi ve years of age. Today, it’s 43 for every 1.000. This means six million more children are saved every year than 25 years ago.

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Reduce maternal mortality

Maternal mortality is now nearly half of what it used to be in 1990. Today, health staff is present at 71 percent of all births in the world. It used to be 59 percent.

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Ensure environmental sustainability

About 1.6 billion people have gained access to clean water since 1990. The ozone hole is closing, and more nature is protected – nearly three times more in Latin America. But climate change continues to challenge.

7Develop a global partnership for development

Almost 80 percent of devel-oping countries’ exports now reach world markets duty free. 95 percent of the world population lives in areas with cellphone coverage, and 43 percent have access to the internet. In 2000, it was six percent.

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The illustration shows how much progress has been made towards the goals. Goal number eight is excluded because it does not have a set target. It’s more of a political declaration that wealthy countries have agreed to follow through. You can also try an interactive version of this illustration:

worldsbestnews.dk/english/mdg-race/

Kilde: UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2015

GOAL

Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

Since 2000, new HIV infec-tions have declined by 40 per-cent, and malaria deaths have dropped by 58 percent. More than 900 million mosquito nets have been distributed in sub-Saharan Africa in the last ten years.

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This year, world leaders fi nally tally up the status of the eight big goals for world development, which they set 15 years ago. And we have come a

long way. Four out of eight goals have been reached*. Three goals have not yet reached their full target, but they are well on their way.

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News in brief

News in brief

Picking a better future

”End poverty in all its forms everywhere”. As state leaders from the whole world are currently on their way to the UN to sign a set of 17 Global Goals, the fi rst and prin-cipal goal on the agenda is to free the world of poverty. Does this sound wildly implausible? In fact, it’s not the fi rst time the world has successfully

committed to change on a global scale. In the year 2000, the biggest ever gathering of world leaders agreed on the fi rst devel-opment milestones; the Millennium Development Goals.

These goals have now improved life for billions of people. For example, the share of people living in extreme poverty has been halved. But more than 800 million people still live in poverty, and now is the time to also include these people.

For several years, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, had led the intensive process of uniting the nations of the world to support the new goals. More than seven million people in 193 coun-tries have voted on which goals they believe are the most important. Govern-ments, NGOs, private sector companies, and scientists from all corners of the world have also been heard.

Ban Ki-moon calls 2015

the most important year in the history of the UN. He looks forward to fi nally sign the new goals, obliging the countries of the world to commit to everything from good education for every-one, to protecting nature:

“Refl ecting on the MDGs and looking ahead on the next fi fteen years, there is no question that we can deliver on our shared responsibility to put an end to poverty, leave no one behind and create a world of dignity for all”.

World leaders are about to sign what could be the most important plan in history: It can make us the generation that ends poverty.

THE WORLD SET TO END POVERTY FOR GOOD

GLOBAL GOALS

By Karoline Rahbek, World’s Best News

More than 46 million square metres of countryside have now been cleared of unexploded bombs in Laos. Many explosive devices still lie hidden in the ground or in the grass after the war that ended in 1973, and over the years they have killed or maimed more

than 50,000 people in the country. Nearly half of the victims are children, who often mistake small cluster bombs for toys. But thanks in part to funding by the EU, work is progressing to fi nd and safely dispose of the deadly weapons. As land is cleared, it can once again be used for farming, schools, or for other pur-poses that directly benefi t the local people.

It’s now 15 years since world leaders promised to act on global problems such as poverty, diseases, and lack of education, before 2015.

A UN evaluation shows that the world’s total yearly aid increased by 66 percent from 2000 to 2014, reaching 122 billion

euros. This increase in aid has helped create real change in the world. More than a billion people have made their way out of ex-treme poverty since 1990, nine tenths of children in developing countries now go to school, and millions of lives are saved every year from preventable diseases. More than half of aid is given by the EU and its member states.

The backroads of Zimbabwe are now open for healthcare, as the EU has provided 63 all-terrain ambulances that can reach patients in isolated villages, where roads are often rough. One of the patients is Elizabeth Moyana, who was rushed to hospital with birth complications. “I wouldn’t be alive today without this ambulance,” she refl ects.

Tough off -road ambulances

Women have begun to stand up for their rights in the tea plantations of Sri Lanka, where the EU is funding a project to improve rural development and empower women. One of the tea pickers is An-nalechchamy, a descendant of poorly treated ‘bonded labourers’. Working on a plantation, she thought the conditions that gen-erations of workers had experienced would never change. But in her new role as a union leader, she has started to work with management to improve life for workers. Estate managers have embraced this change, as productivity has also improved.

Photo: EYD

Bomb harvest saves lives in Laos

Increased aid levels pay off

Poverty must end – sustainably. Solar power provides electricity to Tinginaput village, India. Locals save money on oil lamps and reduce carbon emissions.Photo: Abbie Trayler-Smith / Panos Pictures / DFID. License: CC BY-NC-ND

Photo: EYD

Some EU aid impacts

New Global Goals for everyone

1.200.000teachers trained

7.500.000

births attended by skilled health personnel

1.100.000

km2 of protected nature

In Ukraine, a small team of previous refugees has set up a support centre called ‘Vostok SOS’ to help other refugees. With EU sup-port, the team has provided nearly 11,000 people with food, shelter, clothes, and legal aid, since starting the initiative in 2014.“It’s our responsibility to help those who lost every-thing – their hometowns, belongings; some of them even their families,” says member of Vostok SOS Kostyantyn Reutskiy.Since the outbreak of hos-tilities in Eastern Ukraine, 1.5 million people have fl ed their homes.The EU helped Ukraine with €�365 million of neighbour-hood assistance in 2014.

Refugees help refugees

Source: European Commission

World’s Best News is a journalistic awareness campaign and media that publishes news about progress in the developing countries.

We are a collaboration between the UN, DANIDA, more than 100 Danish NGOs and 100 private sec-tor companies. In 2015 we partner with Project Every-one, Action/2015 and the European Year for Develop-ment to spread World’s Best News globally.

What is World’s Best News?

WE LIVE LONGER

Source: Human Development Index, UNDP

1990 2013

Expected lifespan

People now live longer in most countries of the world. On average, lifespans have increased by 5.25 years compared to 1990, but many developing countries have achieved much more. The map shows the number of

years a newborn can expect to live, if the conditions at the time of birth stay the same throughout that person’s life. This refl ects the general state of health in a country, includ-ing child mortality.hdr.undp.org/en/data/map

> 80 years expected lifespan

70-80 years expected lifespan

60-70 years expected lifespan

50-60 years expected lifespan

40-50 years expected lifespan

< 40 years expected lifespan

A world without poverty and hunger, where men and women are treated as equals, where all children get a good education, and where we take care

of nature so that we leave a world in balance to our children. Does this sound too good to be true? Actually, the countries of the world are currently

working on agreeing a roadmap for the next 15 years, to make those goals a reality. Read more on worldsbestnews.dk/globalgoals

www.worldsbestnews.dkwww.action2015.orgwww.europa.eu/eyd2015www.globalgoals.org

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