UN warns its development goals for 2030 are in trouble and 575 million people will remain very poor

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} In a grim report, the U.N. warned Monday that at the current rate of global progress 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty and 84 million children won’t be going to school in 2030 – and it will take 286 years to reach equality between men and women. “Failure to make progress means inequalities will continue to deepen, increasing the risk of a fragmented, two-speed world.” The report was released ahead of a summit that Guterres has called during the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in September, which he said will be “a moment of truth and reckoning.” Undersecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua said conflicts including the war in Ukraine, climate change, the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic especially its devastating financial impact on developing countries, and geopolitical tensions are all “threatening to derail hard-earned progress” toward achieving the goals. With seven years left, the report said achieving the goals is “in deep trouble” and “it is time to sound the alarm.” At current rates, it said not only will 575 million people still be living in extreme poverty in 2030 but only about one-third of countries will meet the target to reduce national poverty levels by half. As for education, the report said years of underinvestment and learning losses mean that without a major effort not only will an estimated 84 million children be out of school in 2030 but approximately 300 million students will lack basic literacy and math skills for success in life — and only one in six countries will achieve the target of universal secondary school completion.