UN Reports Progress on Anti-Poverty Goals
    The United Nations is reporting signs of some progress in meeting global anti-poverty goals set in 2000. But a top U.N. official says poverty reduction efforts in the poorest parts of the world face "staggering" obstacles, with conditions in some impoverished regions actually worsening. U.N. Undersecretary General Jose Antonio Ocampo's comments today (Monday) in Geneva coincided with the release of a U.N. progress report.
    While noting decreases in extreme poverty across much of the world, the report says 140-milllion more people in sub-Saharan Africa have joined the ranks of those living on a dollar a day or less. The eight so-called Millennium Development goals, set forth in 2000, target health, poverty and environmental issues, and include halving by 2015 the number of people living in abject poverty. The Millennium project also targets infectious diseases, including AIDS and malaria.
    根據(jù)聯(lián)合國(guó)的報(bào)告，2000年設(shè)定的反貧困全球目標(biāo)已經(jīng)有取得一些進(jìn)展的跡象。但是，聯(lián)合國(guó)的一名高級(jí)官員說(shuō)，減少貧困的努力在世界最貧窮的地區(qū)面臨巨大障礙，一些貧困地區(qū)的局勢(shì)甚至在惡化。在聯(lián)合國(guó)副秘書長(zhǎng)奧坎波星期一發(fā)表上述評(píng)論的同時(shí)，聯(lián)合國(guó)公布了這個(gè)進(jìn)展報(bào)告。
    報(bào)告指出，盡管全世界大部份地區(qū)的極端貧困在減少，但是非洲撒哈拉以南地區(qū)每天生活費(fèi)只有一美元或者一美元以下的人增加了1億4千萬(wàn)。2000年，聯(lián)合國(guó)設(shè)定的八個(gè)所謂千年發(fā)展目標(biāo)涉及健康、貧困、環(huán)境問(wèn)題，還包括到2015年將生活在赤貧狀態(tài)的人口數(shù)目減半。千年發(fā)展目標(biāo)還包括打擊愛(ài)滋病和瘧疾在內(nèi)的各種傳染病。