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Broad regional trends of MDG progress have not changed significantly since publication of Global Monitoring Report 2005. Only 20 percent of all developing countries are on track to reduce child mortality (MDG 4); all regions are off on at least some of the goals.

The two regions lagging most seriously behind--South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa--are off-track on almost all the human development goals.

• Many countries, including a number in Sub-Saharan Africa, have accelerated their progress on primary school completion in the past few years.
• Supplemental immunization programs in Africa have produced substantial declines in measles cases since 2000.
• Girls’ enrollments are growing faster than boys’ in every region
• The number of women elected to parliaments is increasing in many places.
• The first evidence that HIV prevention programs are beginning to work is emerging. And the number of AIDS patients under treatment in the developing world has increased rapidly, approaching 1 million in 2005—from less than 100,000 five years ago.

Official development assistance (ODA) commitments for education and health have increased substantially since the MDGs were adopted. In 2004, total assistance for health is estimated at $11.4 billion, and that for education, $9.5 billion.

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