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World leaders are gathering in New York to talk about progress on eight goals set back in 2000 as Millennium Development Goals to be met by 2015. Those goals include reducing poverty and hunger, promoting universal education and gender equality, and fighting HIV/AIDS. Anchor Lisa Mullins has the story.

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. It’s been ten years since the world leaders first pledged to meet eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Those eight goals include reducing poverty and hunger, promoting universal education and gender equality, and fighting AIDS. Well today, leaders gathered in New York to assess progress. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, said much has been achieved, but not nearly enough.

BAN KI-MOON:  The clock is ticking. We have much more to do. There is more to do, for the mother who watches her children go to bed hungry. A scandal played out a billion times each and every night.

MULLINS:  One reason there’s so much more to do, says economist Jeffrey Sachs, is that the richest countries haven’t kept their promises. Sachs played a role in devising the goals.

JEFFREY SACHS: Basically, several promises that donors made throughout the decade have not been realized. In 2002, the donors promised to reach 0.7% of our gross national income as development assistance but we’re only half way there. That’s a huge shortfall.

MULLINS: That’s Jeffrey Sachs, one of the architects of the Millennium Development Goals.

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