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According to a 2014 UN report on the effectiveness of the campaign, the likelihood of a child dying before the age of five had been reduced by 50 percent; maternal mortality rates dropped by 45 percent; and enhanced HIV treatment had saved an estimated 6.6 million lives. Moreover, 22 mil- lion lives had been saved in the fight against tuberculosis, and 3.3 million lives had been saved in the battle against malaria. “Fewer people are in poverty. More children are in school. We are making inroads in the fight against malaria and tuberculosis. Families and communities have greater access to an improved drinking water source,”the Secretary-General said.“We must do more to finish our targets on hunger and chronic child malnutrition. Faster progress is needed to meet the goals of reducing child and maternal mortality and to improve access to sanitation.” As the secretary-general urged action to meet the MDG targets, the entire UN organization began working to reinvent the MDG program and

reinvigorate its mission with a post- 2015 agenda. Largely focused on sustainabledevelopment,newefforts emphasize native solutions to the problems associated with grinding poverty,throughprogramsdeveloped by individual countries and their own civil-society communities. The new agenda also reaches beyond the developing world, and aims to challenge wealthy countries to seek economic strategies that are not damaging to the environment and can be sustained for future generations. In September of 2015, the formal efforts at “rewriting” the goals will begin. Nevertheless, the spirit of the MDGs will remain.

2015 and Beyond Several high-level UN events are planned in 2015 as the Millennium Development Goals program comes to a close and begins to reinvent itself. These include: • Debate in the General Assembly on implementing the post-2015 development agenda • Debate in the General Assembly on gender equality and women’s empowerment • Debate in the General Assembly on peaceful settlement of disputes • Third International Conference on Financing for Development • Special Summit on Sustainable Development

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