“At least 30 million children will still be out of school in 2015 - most of them in poor, conflict-affected countries," says Simon Cowell, Acting Secretary General of the International Save the Children Alliance. 2015 is the target year for education for all and the Millennium Development Goals, a roadmap for ending poverty by 2015.

In the 25 years since Aids has been with us, an awful lot of promises have been made by the world's most powerful people to tackle the epidemic. Government leaders, the UN, the World Health Organisation and other bodies have pledged to pour money and other resources into taking on the scourge of the latter part of the 20th century in the hope that it won't blight too much of the 21st.