The UN’s annual MDG monitoring report was released today.

This year’s stocktaking report is especially significant since 2007 is “halftime” for the MDGs, midway between the agreement to the Millennium Declaration by 189 nations in 2000, and the 2015 deadline for MDG achievement.

While it is true that no one Goal is projected to be on track across all regions, and progress in sub-Saharan Africa needs to accelerate across the board to meet the 2015 targets, I want to point out some very impressive indicators of progress, particularly since 2000.

Progress is being made in virtually all the Goals across all regions.  Even more significant is that the post-2000 period has seen major gains, indicating that the MDG compact has sparked a seriousness of effort that is bearing fruit.  In many cases, progress between 2000 and 2005 was greater than progress in the whole of the 1990s, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“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.