they fomnulated a broad strategic framework aimed at realizing seven goals drawn from the resolutions of international conferences and summit meetings. Subsequently, a series of expert group meetings jointly sponsored by the OECD, United Nations, and the World Bank, and including representatives of developing countries, NGOs, and United Nations funds and programs, helped to establish quantified targets for each goal and identified a set of 21 indicators for measuring progress. Collaborative efforts at monitoring and reporting on progress toward the goals culminated in the publication of A _Better World for All: Progress toward the International Development Goals_ in June, 2000.

The General Assembly of the United Nations incorporated most of the international development goals in the Millennium Declaration in September 2000, while setting new targets for reducing the proportion of people suffering from hunger, increasing access to improved water sources, improving the lives of slum dwellers, and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other major diseases. The "Millennium Development Goals" (MDGs) comprise 7 social and environmental goals linked to 11 quantified targets and a new goal for "Partnership in Development" with 7 associated targets concerned primarily with improving opportunities for developing countries in the global economy (United Nations 2001). Other goals and resolutions of UN summits and conferences, though not included in the Millennium Declaration, also remain in effect. (See Appendix l.) As this paper is mainly concerned with the resource requirements for developing countries in reaching the social and environmental goals of the MDGs, it focuses on the targets and indicators associated with the first seven goals. Nevertheless, the targets of the "Partnership" goal may have a strong bearing on whether developing countries are able to attain the social and environmental goals and on the cost of doing so.

# **III. Progress on the Millennium Development Goals in the 1990s**<sup>**2**</sup>

Progress toward the Goals was uneven in the decade of the 1990s, with some countries and regions exceeding the targets established in the MDGs, while others continued to lag behind. Of particular concern is the weak performance of Sub-Saharan Africa, and to a lesser extent, of South Asia, where the majority of the world's very poorest citizens live. In 1999, there were 490 million people living in extreme poverty in South Asia, 300 million in Sub-Saharan Africa and 260 million in East Asia. This section discusses progress at the regional level toward the Millennium Development Goals.

# **_Goal 1 - Income Poverty and Hunger_**

The first of the Millennium Development Goals is to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty (living on less than $1.08 per day) by the year 2015. As a _single_ indicator, income poverty provides a good measure of overall well-being, since income is correlated with other social indicators such as education attainment and health status. Broad-based economic growth contributes to poverty reduction but the rate at which growth translates into reductions in

**2** The data presented in this section are taken from different sources, identified at the bottom of each table. The most recent year for which reliable data was available was used, with these dates varying from 1998 to 2001. Most of these data are available in the _WVorld Development Indicators_ (World Bank 2002) and the World Development Indicators CD ROM.

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