This document presents the latest data on indicators of MDG 7 and corresponding targets with short commentaries on progress toward achieving them. Across Asia and the Pacific, there has been spectacular progress in reducing extreme poverty, advancing universal primary education, and bridging gender gaps in primary schooling and providing access to improved drinking water. There has also been progress in the region toward reducing hunger (particularly child malnutrition), and significantly reducing child and maternal mortality, although progress in these areas has fallen short of the MDG targets. While there is much cause for celebration regarding attainment of many MDG targets, there remains an unfinished agenda including the challenges posed by inequality and the threat of climate change.

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