"Human development report, 2005"

Five years have passed since the world's governments signed the Millennium Declaration. The Declaration offers a bold new vision for reducing global poverty and inequality, backed by a set of targets-the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)-for advancing human development. The deadline for achieving the MDGs is 2015.But at the start of the 10-year countdown to that deadline most countries are off track for most of the targets. The world is heading for a heavily sign posted human development failure-a failure that enhanced international cooperation could help to avert

This year's Human Development Report takes stock of human development, including progress towards the MDGs Looking beyond statistics it highlights the human costs of missed targets and broken promises. Extreme inequality between countries and within countries

is identified as one of the main barriers to human development-and as a powerful brake on accelerated prognms towards the MDGs

New approaches to international cooperation are vital if the promise of the Millennium Declaration is to be realized. Practical action is needed to make the hed 10 years a decade for development. Focusing on aid, trade and security, three of the central pillars of international cooperation, Human Development Report 2005 sets out a bold analyus of the problems and identifies solutions, it argues that rich countries need to move beyond encouraging words to align their policies with the commitments made in the Millennium Declaration