世界各國領袖、銀行家、企業執行長與名流齊心致力於全面推動千禧年發展目標的加速實現─此目標要在2015年之前大幅削減貧窮與飢餓、增進健康與教育，並確保環境永續。千禧年目標是為八項彼此相關的目標，是由世界各國領袖於2000年為迎接千禧年而決議通過。
距離期限2015年僅剩5年時間，聯合國祕書長潘基文邀請各國領袖赴紐約聯合國大會參與9月20至22日的高峰會，檢討行動並加快腳步達成目標。
世界銀行集團(World Bank Group)於13日宣布，將提供數十億美元投入農業、健康與教育，協助各國在全球目標期限前達成目標。
高峰會前夕，世界銀行在13日發表一份新報告，表示發展中國家在對抗貧窮曾有進展，直到遇到過去幾年來的糧食、燃料與金融危機。
「當我們檢討千禧年發展目標到目前為止的進展，我們看到這些危機只讓事情雪上加霜，世界上有太多人受飢、貧苦，或是易陷入貧窮，卻擁有太少機會獲得公共服務與經濟契機。」世界銀行集團總裁羅伯特‧索立克(Robert Zoellick)如此說道。
索立克表示，鑑於糧食價格上漲且糧食危機可能捲土重來，世界銀行集團將會依據其農業行動計畫，增加對農業的資助，達到約每年83億美元，較2008年前的每年41億美元還要更多。
為了幫助各國達成千禧年發展目標中的普及教育，世界銀行將在基礎教育上給予零利率並增加7.5億美元零利率的投資，重點乃針對尚無法如期於2015年前達成教育目標的國家，尤其是在撒哈拉以南的非洲。
世界銀行亦將投資超過6億美元在健康上，並針對35個國家進行，特別是東亞、南亞與撒南非洲，這些地區在實現其千禧目標上仍面臨挑戰，因素包括高生育率、兒童貧困、產婦營養問題與疾病。
世銀的報告《未完成的事業：啟動新一波努力實現2015年千禧年發展目標》中，發現84個能取得資料的發展中國家之中，有45個已經達成或可如期達到削減貧窮的目標；但受到近幾波危機影響，其他國家則無法如期達成。
報告中說，1981年時，發展中國家中有52%的人生活在極端貧窮中，到了2005年，這個比率掉到25%，在東亞、拉丁美洲與中東歐的貧窮更急劇下降。
但撒南非洲持續在抗貧行動中落後。飢餓與營養不良比例已然降低，但要達成飢餓人口減半的千禧年發展目標進度，卻在2008年的糧食價格高漲時幾乎完全被翻轉回去。
世銀預測，預估目前因糧食、燃料與金融危機之故，2010年多了6400萬人口在生活在極端貧窮中，2009年則約多了4000萬人口陷入受飢狀況。
到了2015年，有120萬5歲以下的孩童可能死亡，而約有1億人仍無法取得安全飲用水，世銀在報告中寫道。
World leaders, bankers, executives and celebrities are engaged in an all-out push for accelerated progress towards the Millenium Development Goals - to slash poverty and hunger, improve health and education, and ensure environmental sustainability by 2015. The eight interlinked goals were agreed by world leaders in the year 2000 to usher in the new millenium.
With only five years left until the 2015 deadline, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited world leaders to attend a summit at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 20-22 to take stock and accelerate progress towards achieving the goals.
The World Bank Group today announced billons of dollars in new funding for agriculture, health, and education to help countries achieve their goals by the global target date.
In a new report released today ahead of the summit, the World Bank said developing countries were making progress in overcoming poverty until the food, fuel, and financial crises of the past several years.
"As we take stock of the MDGs so far, we see the crises only made things worse, with too many of the world's people hungry, poor, or vulnerable to poverty, with too few jobs and too little access to services and economic opportunity," said World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick.
Zoellick said that given rising food prices and the possible return of the food crisis, the World Bank Group will boost support to agriculture to some $8.3 billion a year, up from $4.1 billion annually before 2008, under its Agriculture Action Plan.
To help countries achieve the MDG of universal education, the World Bank will increase its zero-interest and grant investment in basic education by an additional $750 million, with a focus on the countries that are not on track to reach the education MDGs by 2015, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Investing more than $600 million in health, the World Bank will focus on 35 countries, particularly in East Asia, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, which face challenges in achieving their MDGs because of high fertility and poor child and maternal nutrition and disease.
The World Bank report, "Unfinished Business: Mobilizing New Efforts to Achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals," finds that of the 84 developing countries with available data, 45 have already achieved or are on schedule to meet the poverty reduction target; compounded by the impact of recent crises, the rest are off-track.
In 1981, 52 percent of people in developing countries lived in extreme poverty, the report states. By 2005, that share had fallen to 25 percent, with poverty falling sharply in East Asia, Latin America, and Eastern and Central Europe.
But Sub-Saharan Africa continues to lag in overcoming poverty. Hunger and malnutrition rates have been falling, but progress on meeting the MDG of halving the proportion of hungry people was almost completely reversed in 2008 with the spike in food prices.
The World Bank now estimates that as a result of the food, fuel and financial crises, 64 million more people are living in extreme poverty in 2010, and some 40 million more people went hungry last year.
By 2015, 1.2 million more children under five may die, and about 100 million more people may remain without access to safe water, the bank said in its report.
全文及圖片詳見：ENS報導
