More global effort is needed to achieve key targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to a UN report published on Monday. The “Millennium Development Goals Report 2014” presents the latest updates of global and regional progress towards the eight MDGs, which were agreed on by all UN member countries in 2000 and will run out in 2015. The report shows that despite progress towards some of the goals, member states will miss targets related to reducing child and maternal mortality and improving access to sanitation. Some targets, such as those related to reducing extreme poverty, increasing access to drinking water sources and achieving gender parity in primary school, have already been met, the UN claims. The UN is optimistic that the target of halving, between 1990 and 2015, the percentage of people who suffer from hunger can still be reached. “The hunger target looks within reach”, the press release says. However, the report admits that progress has slowed down in the past decade. The proportion of undernourished people in developing regions decreased from 24% in 1990-1992 to 14% in 2011-2013 - but 842 million people were still suffering from chronic hunger. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment (25%), followed by Southern Asia (17%). Both regions will miss the hunger target. The report shows that progress has also been uneven for the second indicator of the target, the prevalence of underweight children under five. An estimated 99 million children, or 15% of the world’s children, were underweight in 2012 but in Southern Asia, 30% of the children were underweight. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 21% were affected but the total number of undernourished children even increased to 32 million. “We need bolder and focused action where significant gaps and disparities exist”, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the foreword to the report. As Member States are currently “engaged in discussions to define Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will serve as the core of a universal post-2015 development agenda, our efforts to achieve the MDGs are a critical building block towards establishing a stable foundation for our development efforts beyond 2015”, Ban Ki-moon said.