Briefing Papers Number 10, September 2010 | Page 3

in achieving MDG 5, which calls for reducing the maternal
mortality rate by three-quarters.6 The number of people living with HIV who received treatment increased from less
than half a million to more than 4 million in five years. This
does not meet the goal of achieving universal access to treatment by 2010 (there are still some 2 million more people in
need of access), but it is a gigantic leap forward from the days
when treatment was beyond the reach of most people in the
developing world.7 Key health interventions, such as bed net
protection and treatments for malaria, have been instrumental in cutting child deaths from 12.5 million in 1990 to 8.8
million in 2008.
The MDGs can be credited with not only building a global consensus on targets to reduce poverty and hunger, but
also serving as a platform for launching bold and aggressive
initiatives. Over the past decade, the MDGs have become
in many ways the most accessible set of global benchmarks—
embraced by governments, civil society actors, grassroots
and youth-focused groups, and celebrities alike.
The United States can point to signature initiatives that
have directed resources toward achieving the MDGs over
the past decade. As the largest funder of global HIV/AIDS
programs, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR) has led the global effort to combat HIV/AIDS
(MDG 6). Since it was launched in 2003, PEPFAR has invested $32 billion in bilateral and multilateral funding and
has successfully expanded access to HIV prevention, care,
and treatment in low-resource settings. In its initial phase,
PEPFAR expanded treatment to more than 2.4 million
people—half of all those on treatment in low- and middleincome countries. PEPFAR programs also funded care and
support for 11 million people affected by HIV, including 3.6
million orphans, and prevented more than 300,000 babies
from contracting HIV at birth. These impressive results have
undoubtedly moved countries, particularly in Africa, closer
to meeting the MDG health goals.
Another U.S. signature program, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), has led the way in making U.S.
foreign assistance more effective in meeting the MDGs.
Since it was created in 2005, the MCC has approved more
than $7.4 billion in investments—rewarding well-governed
countries with large-scale grants, or “compacts,” supporting
country-determined projects in key sectors that drive economic growth, such as agriculture. An independent agency,
the MCC has emerged as an innovative mechanism for foreign assistance delivery—one that prioritizes country-driven
strategies, good governance, a longer-term outlook, deep engagement with national priorities, and investment in projects
most likely to yield economic returns that reduce poverty.
Lifting millions of people out of extreme poverty requires
bold initiatives and intensive engagement. In August, the
Center for Global Development unveiled a new MDG Progwww.bread.org

ress Index to better measure country-level progress. Moving beyond the regional focus, the analysis identified “MDG
trailblazers,” countries that would achieve at least half the
MDG targets by 2015. There are 15 star performers in all.
The Progress Index analysis draws on country-level data,
rather than global or regional indicators, to determine to
what extent a country is on or off track to reach the various
goals. The findings suggest that five countries (Honduras,
Kyrgyz Republic, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), mostly
in East Asia, will likely achieve all of the MDG targets. An
additional 10 countries, half of which are in sub-Saharan Africa (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda),
show achievements that will exceed expectations. The next
section of this paper looks at three of these “star performers” in Africa.
Figure 1: Proportion of people living on less than

$1.25 a day, 1990 and 2010 (percentage)
sub-Saharan Africa
51

58

Southern Asia
49

39

Southern Asia, excluding India
45

31

CIS, Asia
6

1990
2005
2015 Target

19

South-Eastern Asia
39

19

Eastern Asia

60

16

Latin America & the Caribbean
8

11

Western Asia
2

6

Northern Africa
3

5

Transition countries of South-Eastern Asia
0.1
1

CIS, Europe
2
0.3

Developing Regions
46

27

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Source:

Bread for the World Institute  3