Peru Reaches UN’s Millennium Goals Two Years Before Schedule; Poverty Rate Slashed In Half In The Last 20 Years

There are still two years left to accomplish the Millennium Goals (MG), which were marked by the United Nations in 2000, but some advanced students are already getting their work done. Take Peru, for instance: The Latin American country has fulfilled several goals well before the 2015 deadline.

Peruvian U.N. Coordinator Rebeca Arias presented the third Millennium Goal Report on Thursday in Lima, showcasing the country’s achievements in issues like poverty, education and employment.

According to Peruvian news agency Andina, the country managed to reduce poverty by half in the past two decades -- dropping from 54.4 percent in 1991 to 25.8 percent in 2012. Extreme poverty numbers decrease even more abruptly there, from 23 percent to 6 percent in the same period of time. This fulfills the first Millennium Goal (MG1) marked by the U.N. at the beginning of the century, which expected global poverty to be axed in half before 2015.

MG2, which aspired to universal primary education, was reached when more than 98 percent of the population was able to write and read by the end of 2012.

Child mortality dropped a 69 percent -- from 53 deaths per 1,000 births in 1990 to 17 in 2012, reaching the requirements of MG4 to reduce infant deaths by two-thirds before the deadline. Peru ranks fifth in the world in achieving this goal.

The country also showed improvement in other areas related to the goals and praised by the United Nations. Chronic malnutrition numbers dropped from a 37.3 percent to 18 percent, and in children under 5 years old, malnutrition dropped from 8.8 to 4.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the employment rate went up from 65.7 percent to 70.9 percent.

Despite the good news, it was also noted in the remarks that Peru still has work to do to achieve the other four goals, which comprise gender equality, fight against HIV and malaria and environmental sustainability.