“Most African countries are lagging behind in achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] and will not make as much progress in health, nutrition and sanitation as had hoped, U.N. officials said” on Thursday, the Associated Press/ABC News reports. “Education is one bright spot in the list of development targets. Many African countries are on track to having 90 percent of children in school, according to a July U.N. report,” the news service writes, adding, “But the continent is not on schedule to meet targets to eradicate hunger and poverty, reduce child mortality and improve maternal health, said the report.”

“Although Africa has achieved economic growth in the past decade, it has failed to reduce poverty and hunger and create adequate jobs, according to the report,” the AP notes. “The slow progress has been linked to high population growth and persistently high levels of gender and geographical inequalities,” the news service adds. “There is a reason to be pessimistic about the MDGs from the point of view that the progress has been slow on some of the goals,” U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said at the close of a meeting on the post-2015 development agenda in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, according to the AP (Tadesse, 11/16).