Paths to 2015: MDG Priorities in Asia and the Pacific

Since 2004, an ESCAP/ADB/UNDP partnership has regularly produced reports carefully tracking progress of the Asia and Pacific region towards the Goals. They have developed a consistent monitoring system for judging whether countries and subregions are on-track or off-track to meet the indicators for the 2015 Goals – presenting the results in a series of distinctive colour-coded ‘traffic-light’ charts. Each of the reports has focused on a particular theme, such as Millennium Development Goals (MDG) consistent national development policies or institutional reforms to make the development process fairer and more inclusive, or the impact of the food, fuel and financial crises on the likely achievement of the goals.

The report Paths to 2015 emphasises the inter-relationships between MDGs by identifying some overall priorities and opportunities that countries can consider for achieving all the goals. Then it focuses specifically on three areas: hunger and food security; health and basic services – areas where the Asia-Pacific region as a whole appears to be falling short; and on improvement of basic infrastructure which is often neglected but is critical if the region is to achieve the MDGs.