From correspondents in Delhi, India, 10:32 PM IST

Poverty and backwardness are being fuelled by price rise and economic slowdown, hampering ongoing efforts to achieve millennium development goals (MDG) midway into the stipulated timeline, according to a UN report released Thursday.

The report, titled 'Millennium Development Goals Report-2008', said though sound progress has been made in some MDG areas, an array of goals and targets are likely to be missed on account of higher oil and food prices, global economic slowdown, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.

UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon said in the report: 'We face a global economic slowdown and a food security crisis, both of uncertain magnitude and duration. Global warming has become more apparent. These developments will directly affect our efforts to reduce poverty.'

The findings suggested that targets of reducing absolute poverty by half was achievable for the world as a whole, but the proportion of people in sub-Saharan Africa living on less than $1 per day was unlikely to be reduced by half within the stipulated time.

According to the report, about one quarter of all children in developing countries are considered to be underweight and are at risk of having a future blighted by long-term effects of undernourishment.

Some 1.6 billion people have gained access to safe drinking water since 1990, whereas some 2.5 billion people, almost half the developing world's population, live without improved sanitation.

At the launch of the report here, UN Resident Coordinator Maxine Olson said: 'Although India has seen a decline in infant mortality, the decline is more pronounced in males as compared to females. This is a cause of concern and the MDG to reduce child mortality by 2015 is unlikely to be achieved.'

The situation, it seems, is especially grim for women and maternal health.

Women account for less than 10 percent of parliamentarians in one third of the developing countries. At the global level, maternal mortality decreased by less than one percent between 1990 and 2005, far below the 5.5 percent annual improvement needed to reach the target.

Estimates for 2005 show that every minute a woman dies of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, while 99 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries, with sub Saharan Africa and South Asia accounting for 86 percent.

With regards to the MDG to combat diseases Olson said: 'The report states that most countries are struggling to meet the target of achieving universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS by 2010 and of halting and reversing the spread the disease by 2015.

'According to National AIDS Control Organisation estimates, India has 2.3 million people infected with HIV. Report also indicates that one in about 630 people is infected with Malaria and there are about 1.8 million new cases of TB every year.'

The report reveals that efforts for sustainable development in the future seem faint as more than a third of urban population is found living in slum conditions. Carbon dioxide emissions have continued to increase despite the international timetable for addressing the problem.

The UN through the report appealed to national governments, the civil society, the private sector and the international community to mobilise additional resources to commit to building on the momentum to achieve goals.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)