Millennium Development Goals: Time to step up

Some might view the United Nations’ latest update on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a distressing catalogue of unmet ambitions. Others could find in it reasons to believe in the possibility of reaching the targets. In reality, says a report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon entitled “Keeping the Promise,” there have been both successes and shortfalls. Therefore Mr. Ban is urging world leaders (expected at a UN General Assembly Summit on the MDGs in September) to keep to their pledges to support economic and social progress for the world’s most vulnerable people.