All of the areas surveyed are of great importance to poor people. Key conclusions include the following.

Hunger – Score: 3

Hunger Goal: To halve the number of people suffering from hunger by 2015.

Evidence from 2003 suggests that although several major regions are making progress, vast swaths of humanity will face increasing hunger unless international trade policies are changed, national policies focus on hunger, and successful local efforts are multiplied. Of 34 countries that represent more than 90 percent of the world’s undernourished people, China has already cut the proportion of hungry people in half from 1990 levels, and East Asia as a whole and Latin America are likely to reach the goal of halving hunger by 2015.

However, in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the proportion of hungry people is likely to increase. The failure to liberalize trade in agricultural commodities at Cancun continued the discrimination against poor farmers’ market access and kept investment in boosting developing country agricultural productivity low. Chinese policies related to land reform, irrigation, agricultural research, disaster relief and transportation infrastructure have been significant. Brazil has launched a promising Zero Hunger program targeting 11 million poor families for cash payments, school programs, vaccinations, and job training.

Poverty – Score: 4

Poverty Goal: To halve the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015.

Whereas global efforts on poverty reduction stalled in 2003, strong domestic policy and local, private initiatives proved increasingly successful in improving the lives of millions of the world’s poor. The failure of the World Trade Organization’s Cancun negotiations to open rich country markets to agricultural products from the developing world, and the continuation of large subsidies to rich country farmers, left the world’s poorest unable to compete internationally. And despite pledges by OECD countries to significantly increase foreign aid, U.S. commitments at the Monterrey conference and through its Millennium Challenge Account and AIDS initiative have not been fully matched with resources. The World Bank–International Monetary Fund Poverty Reduction Strategy Program for least-developed countries helped increase government spending on poverty reduction in very poor countries, but too few of those strategies achieve the stated aim of involving governments and citizens in a far-reaching consensus on how to tackle poverty effectively.

Education – Score: 3

Education Goal: To ensure universal primary education and gender parity in primary and secondary schooling by 2015.

Though overall progress in recent years toward universal primary education and gender parity has been impressive, at least 96 countries have not reached the target of universal primary education, and 104 million school-aged children are not enrolled in primary school. Prioritizing education, particularly for girls, has proven instrumental for economic growth, but investment still lags far behind needs. South and West Asia, the Arab States and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean have witnessed rapid growth in primary enrollments, but educational quality, particularly in Latin America, is so low that fundamental changes are still needed for the majority of children to have access to meaningful education.

Peace and Security – Score: 3

Peace and Security Goal: To free all peoples from the scourge of war, both within and between states, to seek to eliminate the dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction, to take concerted action against international terrorism, and to end illicit traffic in small arms.

Contrary to popular perception, there was positive news in 2003: no new civil wars broke out and conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and Sudan seemed on their way to resolution. The conflict prevention capabilities of governments and international organizations, as well as civil society and the private sector, have clearly been strengthened. However, the international community failed to prevent or sanction war in Iraq, hostilities continue in Afghanistan, relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea and between India and Pakistan remain fragile, and the Israel-Palestine conflict remains dangerously unresolved. Thus, far more needs to be done to consolidate the trend toward declining inter-state war. Additionally, great security threats persist such as the growth of international terrorist networks as well as the existence of many fragile and collapsed states. Only very modest gains have been made in reducing the availability of small arms and light weapons, and stockpiles of landmines remain enormous as China, Russia, and the United States have refused to sign the Land Mines Treaty.