as they will set new goals for the next 15 years. The ambition is to eliminate pov-erty completely, and while this will be a huge project, it is not unrealistic, accord-ing to widely recognised prognoses from the World Bank.

The goals from 2000 focused specifically on the developing countries, but the upcoming targets for 2030 will involve the entire world. Therefore, a coalition of private sector compa-nies, NGOs and founda-tions have decided to spread the message world-wide. “We can broaden the conversation so that billions of people can take part in the discussion of what the world should look like. Then everyone can hold their leaders accountable for meeting the new goals,” says Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In the year 2000, the big-gest gathering of world leaders ever came together in the United Nations. Their mission was to write the foundation of eight targets for development, giving governments something to aim for in order to make the

www.worldsbestnews.dk

world a better place before 2015.

Now, with less than a year left until we wrap up the Millennium Develop-ment Goals, the results speak for themselves: Half of the world’s poor have escaped extreme poverty since 1990, 2.3 billion peo-ple have gained access to safe drinking water, AIDS and malaria have been

curbed, and 90 percent of children in developing coun-tries now start school.

But we still face massive challenges. Three of the goals will not meet their full targets, and if global warming is not managed, the consequences will be enormous.

This is why the meeting of world leaders in Sep-tember can make history,

Editorial

I was one of the many skeptics back in 2000, when the UN agreed on the Millennium Develop-ment Goals for 2015. The goals seemed technocratic, and had no public mandate. But the fact is: We were proven wrong. Today, the lives of billions of people have improved. And when the world’s leaders meet again in September, they will set new goals for the next 15 years, to make a real impact on the whole world. That is why 2015 is our decisive year, where we can make our mark on history. We can be the generation that decides to make poverty his-tory. Hopefully, as a result everyone all over the world has the possibility to live a decent life in 2030.

Solar power success for Bolivia I 3 Mobile app creates reading boom I 3 We live better and longer I 4

Nr. 01 I January 2015

2015: THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT YEARWe have now entered the year where world leaders are set for a momentous decision: To eliminate poverty for good. History and statistics show that change on this scale is indeed possible.

OPPORTUNITIES

By Karoline Rahbek, World’s Best News

”The meeting of world leaders in September can make history

The world is setfor real change

By Thomas Ravn-Pedersen,Editor-in-chief, World’s Best News

Photo: Astrid Hjorth Thomas White, DanChurchAid

There has been major progress in the world, since the Millennium Development Goals were launched back in 2000. Today, equal numbers of girls and boys start school.Photo: © Amanda Koster/Corbis

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Fifteen years ago, the na-tions of the world decided to begin solving many of the biggest global challeng-es. The aim was to make tangible progress in eight

focus areas before the end of 2015. Now, at the start of the final year, we begin to tally the score, as the eight runners dash for the finish line.

State of progress

Final sprint:Eight goals to change the world

This graphic shows how far we’ve come to achieving some of the goals. Try out the interactive version at:

www.worldsbestnews.dk/mdg-race

Basic education forevery child

Halfway there. Nine out of ten children now start primary school, halving the proportion of kids who don’t get the chance of education. Many of the remaining children live in areas of conflict.

2Halve poverty and hunger

We made this happen in 2010, when the world’s proportion of extremely poor came down from 36 to 18 percent since 1990. Malnourishment has almost been halved too.

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Equal rights and opportu-nities for women and girls

Equal numbers of boys and girls now start school. In 1990, only 69 girls en-rolled for every 100 boys. The proportion of women in parliaments has gone up from 14 to 22 percent since 2000.

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Reduce child mortality by two thirds

Not there yet. Still, child mortality has been almost halved since 1990, which amounts to saving six million children in 2012 alone, and progress is accelerating.

4

Prevent at least 3 outof 4 maternal deaths

More needs to be done. 37 percent more pregnant women now get at least four visits from a midwife, and we are down to 21 deaths for every 10.000 pregnancies. In 1990 the number was 38.

5

Ensure green andsustainable development

This target is considered met, as 2.3 bn people gained access to clean drinking water, more nature is protected, and ozone depletion was stopped. But many challenges remain, such as the climate.

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Global partnership for development

80 percent of imports from developing countries now enter developed countries duty-free, help-ing the poorer countries get rid of their debt. The target does not have a clear deadline.

8

Fight HIV, malaria and other diseases

Numbers of new HIV infec-tions in developing coun-tries have dropped by 40 pct. since 2001, tuberculo-sis is declining, and malaria deaths are down 47 percent between 2000 and 2013.

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POVERTY

EDUCATION

GENDER EQUALITY

CHILD MORTALITY

MATERNAL MORTALITY

DISEASES

SUSTAINABILITY

GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP

Kilde: Human Development Index, UNDP

News in brief

News in brief

Fish createmillions ofjobs in Vietnam

It’s official: You now have the opportunity to help decide the future of the world. The United Na-tions are about to set new goals for global develop-ment in the next 15 years until 2030, and they want to know what you and the rest of humanity prefer that they focus on.

Since it would take at

least 66,546 years to consult all seven billion people individually, the UN has decided to set up the largest ever online survey instead. Every world citizen is invited to vote at www.myworld2015.org about what kind of world we would like to call home in 2030.

Do you want a world without poverty, with good education for all, and support for people who are not able to work?

Or would you prefer

to live on a green and sustainable planet, with better healthcare and pro-tection against crime and violence?

It’s quick and easy to cast your vote, but maybe hard to choose, as you can only select six topics from a total of 16 for your vision of the future.

The United Nations will use the results of the vote as a guideline when world leaders convene in Sep-tember to set new targets for the international pro-

gress that began in 2000 with the eight Millennium Development Goals.

If you participate, the website can make a lit-tle video clip about your choices, ready to share if you would also like to tell your friends what you told the United Nations. Close to seven million people have already voted.

www.myworld2015.org

If you could step up and speak directly to the United Nations for five minutes, what problems would you ask the world’s leaders to solve?

UN: WHAT KIND OF WORLD DO YOU WANT?

MY WORLD

By Thomas Gringer Jakobsen,World’s Best News

The first solar power plant in Bolivia is now on line and ready to supply clean energy to the citizens of the country’s northern Pando province. It only took 174 days to install the first 8000 solar cell panels. This boost in power production is much needed, as just 64 per cent of the city’s

population had so far been provided with electricity. As a pilot project for green energy, the investment is budgeted to recoup its cost in just seven years, thanks to savings on oil imports. Bolivia expects to reduce its annual oil imports by 1.9 million litres, leading to savings of 1,4 million euros and cutting carbon emis-sions by 5000 tonnes of CO2 every year.

The lack of books remains one of the big reasons for illiteracy in less devel-oped countries. But a new mobile phone app, World Reader Mobile, is now changing that. All it takes is an online phone to read a plethora of books in 41 languages. In the biggest

survey to date on mobile readership in developing countries, UNESCO found that respondents read much more after gaining access to books on their phones. The survey reveals that romance is the most popular genre, but the reader app is also used by parents to read bedtime stories for their children, and teachers use it for find-ing new study material.

Nearly nine out of 10 people in Ghana now enjoy access to safe drink-ing water, a 60 percent improvement compared to 1990. Safe water for drinking is one of the most important factors in health and survival in developing countries, and the lack of it continues to cause the deaths of millions of people every year. The majority of those deaths are children, who are more vulnerable to bacteria.

Safe drinking water in Ghana

There has been a lot of de-mand for Vietnamese fish lately, a big change from 20 years ago. The total fish exports of Vietnam have grown from 403 million euros in 1995 to 5,373 million in 2013. This export success has also ben-efited the country’s poorest people. Nearly three million additional Vietnamese have been employed in the fishing industry, mak-ing it possible for them to provide for their families. As a result, approximately 10 million Vietnamese have left poverty behind.

Photo: Klaus Holsting, Danida

Photo: Klaus Holsting, Danida

Solar powerboost for Bolivia

Books onphones make more people read

A good education is the highest priority, if you ask the more than seven million people who already have participated in UN’s global survey.Photo: Mikkel Østergaard, Danida

The World in numbers

World Calendar

6.600.000lives saved by AIDS-

medication since 1995

57 %

of ministers in the Nicaraguan government

are now women

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countries are home to more than half of the

world’s extremely poor

More girls now have access to birth control in South Asia. This has caused num-bers of births by mothers between 15 and 19 years of age to drop from 88 to 50 births for every 1000 girls. More teenage girls now attend school, and there has been a drop in the number of girls who marry very young. Since 1990, the number of teenage mothers has been decreasing in virtually all developing coun-tries, but numbers remain high, especially in Africa and Latin America, where birthrates have not dropped as fast as in South Asia.

Fewer teenage mothers in South Asia

Source: UN Millennium Development Goals Report, 2014

World’s Best News is a journalistic awareness campaign and media that publishes news about progress in the develop-ing countries. We are a collaboration between the UN, DANIDA, more than 100 Danish NGO’s and 100 private sector compa-nies. In 2015 we partner with Project Everyone, Action/2015 and the Euro-pean Year of Development to spread World’s Best News globally. Find more good news atworldsbestnews.dk

What is World’s Best News?

WE LIVE BETTERAND LONGER

Source: Human Development Index, UNDP

1980 2013

Standard of living

People of the world have made major progress since 1980. The UN Human De-velopment Index measures progress on a scale from 0,0 to 1,0. To reach the highest score, a nation’s citizens must on average live at least

85 years, enjoy an annual sal-ary of $75,000 or more, and have 15 years of education. Norway is currently leading with a score of 0,944.

An interactive map is avail-able at hdr.undp.org/en/data/map

will go down inhistory. It’s now the time forworld leaders to forge a deal

to make poverty history, while securing the future of

our planet.

Everyone, from Madrid to Manila, shall know about the new set of

sustainable development goals: Keep an eye out!

This is it! Worldleaders will decide

how we are going tomeet the global

challenges and how to eliminate poverty

before 2030.

www.worldsbestnews.dkwww.action2015.org

Illustration: Mikkel Henssel

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