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A global anti-poverty summit, attended by nearly one hundred and forty heads of state and government, is currently under way in New York. The summit was called by the United Nations General Assembly and aims to renew efforts to achieve the so-called Millennium Development Goals, agreed upon in the year 2000.

There are eight of these goals, which must be achieved before 2015. The first is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger and, more specifically, to decrease by half the number of hungry people in the world, as well as those who live on less than a dollar a day.

The other seven objectives are: to achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development.

According to the UN, there are countries that are in a position to meet these objectives thanks to the efforts undertaken in the last few years, however, many other countries are not moving in the right direction and the economic crisis (the worst since 1929) is complicating matters even further.

Nonetheless, the UN has emphasised that the world has enough resources and knowledge to attain these goals. Yesterday, UN secretary Ban Ki-moon said that they are achievable and that the 2015 target date is still possible.