More than half-way to the 2015 deadline of the millennium development goals (MDG), it has become clear that the achievement of all eight goals would not be reached by any African country.

This statement was made at the 2008 Millennium Development Report launch, in Sandton on Friday.  United Nations (UN) development programme macroeconomics specialist for poverty reduction, Udo Etukudo, said that based on the current trends, no African country was likely to achieve all the goals.

He noted that fragile and post-conflict countries faced particular challenges in generating momentum to reduce poverty, and to make advances on improving living standards.

The proportion of people in sub-Saharan Africa living below the World Bank's international poverty line has decreased from 55,7% in 1990, to 50,3% in 2005. However, because of the population growth, the number of people in the region living in extreme poverty, grew by 100-million over this period.

Etukudo said that the latest estimates of global poverty headcount, released by the World Bank in August this year, suggested that the number of people living in extreme poverty in 2005, bordered on 1,4-billion.

He added that the proportion of people in the world suffering from malnutrition and hunger had fallen since the early 1990s, however the number of people with insufficient access to food had risen.

"Most of the poor in developing countries are net food buyers. With the increase in food prices, about 1-billion people go hungry, while at least another 2-billion are undernourished. The food price spikes are believed to have pushed over 100-million more people into extreme poverty."

The second MDG was universal primary education, and Etukudo said that achieving this goal would mean full primary enrolment. He noted that this still posed a significant barrier to the MDGs, and that projections suggested that without further acceleration, 58 out of the 86 countries would not reach the goal by 2015.

With regard to the third MDG, that of promoting gender equality and empowerment, Etukudo said that sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and Western Asia had the largest gender gaps in primary enrolment. At the current rate, the third MDG remained far from being achieved.

Despite the progress in many countries to reduce the child mortality rate, the rates are stagnant or getting worse. Malnutrition and lack of access to quality health care and infrastructure was adding to death among children, Etukudo said.

Sub-Saharan Africa had one-fifth of the world's children under five years of age, but accounted for one-half of all child deaths in the developing world.

The fifth MDG, that if improving maternal health, has seen a decrease of less than 1% between 1990 and 2005. In sub-Saharan Africa, the progress was negligible. Only 47% of births were attended to by skilled personnel in this region, which accounted for its great number of maternal deaths.

The combat against HIV, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) was also struggling. Etukudo said that the number of infected individuals was expected to continue to grow in sub-Saharan Africa, and to remain near current levels worldwide, because of the life-prolonging effect of antiretroviral treatments.

Access to this treatment rose by 42% in 2007, largely financed by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and malaria. By the end of 2007, an estimated 3-million people were receiving treatment world wide, however, that was only a fraction of the 9,7-million people in need of treatment.

The seventh MDG of ensuring environmental sustainability was also in danger of not being reached as climate change was intensifying disasters, including extreme weather events, storm surges, floods and droughts.

Etukudo said that water use had grown to more than twice the rate of the population for the last century, and about 2,8-billion people, or about 40% of the world's population, lived in areas with some type of water scarcity.

He noted that current trends suggested that the world may meet the target of halving the proportion of population without access to safe drinking water, but would not meet the target of improved sanitation facilities.

The findings of the eight MDG, that of the development of a global partnership for development found that official development assistance continued to drop from an all time high of $107,1-billion in 2005, to $103,7-billion in 2007.

Aid flows needed to increase by $180-billion a year to meet the promise made by the G8 in 2005 of doubling aid by 2010.

The MDG faced several challenges including the rise in food and fuel prices. The effects of climate change and environmental challenges, Etukudo said, also threatened the MDG for 2015. It was noted that although it was still possible for Africa to reach the development goals, the projects had to be fast-tracked, and the continent would need additional financial and social support from developed countries.