The United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) are eight goals that all 191 UN Member States
have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. The United
Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September
2000 commits world leaders to combat poverty, hunger,
disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and
discrimination against women.
Over the more than four decades since its independence,
Bangladesh has achieved remarkable development
progress, increasing its real per-capita income by more
than 130 percent, reducing its poverty rate by 60 percent,
and becoming well set to achieve most of the MDG targets.
Bangladesh’s health outcomes have been ‘exceptional’ in
the context of its economic growth--something that the
influential British medical journal The Lancet terms as a
‘paradox’.The latest publication of Bangladesh MDGs
Progress Report 2015, published by General Economics
Division shows that Bangladesh has made noticeable
progress in the areas of poverty alleviation, food security,
primary school enrollment, gender parity in primary and
secondary level education, lower infant and under five
mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, improving
immunization coverage and reducing the incidence of
communicable diseases.