The sputtering U.S. economy has many investors worried, but such concerns need to be put into perspective by taking a long-term view of the global economy. A new World Bank report, which tracks changes in economic growth and other indicators of human well-being for nearly every nation on earth, provides such a perceptive. Part of the picture that emerges from the World Development Indicators is daunting.
Many children die before reaching their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable diseases.
More than 113 million children do not attend school. Half a million women die during pregnancy or childbirth every year from complications that could easily have been treated or prevented. Barring a sudden improvement in current trends, many countries will fail to meet the international development goals endorsed at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in September. The goals call for halving the proportion of the world's population living in extreme poverty from 1990 to 2015. Also included are targets for progress in school enrollment, gender equality, child and maternal mortality, and access to reproductive health services.