MDG Report 2013

As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target date of 2015 approaches, it is essential to take stock of Africa’s progress. This 2013 MDG report reveals a mixed pattern-successes and failures, improvements and challenges, innovations and obstacles. Africa’s substantial progress toward many goals, targets and indicators is beyond doubt. But serious challenges remain, especially in translating economic growth into decent job opportunities, improving service delivery and minimizing income, gender and spatial inequalities.

Africa’s slow progress on social indicators can be linked to policymakers’ inability to solve the continent’s food insecurity problem, the theme of this report. Africa’s food insecurity predates the MDGs. Since the mid-1980s, the number of food emergencies in African countries has tripled, and emerging challenges like climate change and underdeveloped agriculture have only made the problem worse. How does this phenomenon affect other MDGs, particularly those for health? And how would a concerted effort to improve agriculture, food distribution and nutrition fast-track progress towards other MDGs?