United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Gap task force report results at a press conference at the UN's New York headquarters on Friday. The report represents the final results after eight years of work. The report monitored the progress of the MDG's 8th goal, focusing on the results of five main areas covering: official development assistance (ODA) given to each country; market access; debt sustainability; access to essential medicines; and new technologies. The MDG Gap task force issued annual results to all UN member states in those fields. Egypt was the largest ODA recipient, receiving $5.5bn according to the report's final version, which was published this year. Followed by Egypt, the other countries with the largest ODA inflows included Vietnam, Syria, and Turkey amongst the top 10. Donors tend to concentrate their ODA on a relatively small number of countries, leaving other countries significantly under-funded, the report added. Regarding the section of the report reviewing access to essential and affordable medicines, the report said: "Egypt, the country with the highest infection rates of HCV with an estimated infection prevalence of more than 10% of population, has negotiated a reduced price of $900 per 12-week period of treatment. It suggests that significant price reductions, as experienced for HIV ARTs, should be possible for the treatment of Hepatitis C."
"Despite gains towards the number of targets, major gaps remain in reducing vulnerabilities for developing countries, including small island developing states," Ban said during the press conference on Friday.
He also urged partners worldwide to "walk together towards the unfinished MDG commitment, tackle inequality and beat challenges that emerged across three dimensions in development which are economic, social and environmental". Next Friday, the MDGs which have been adopted by the UN since 2000 will come to an end. On the same day, new goals, which will be valid until 2030, are expected to be adopted during the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) summit. The SDGs will add to the MDGs new goals tackling a wider range of issues, such as climate change and energy. In terms of poverty, Egypt has already achieved its target under one of the MDGS, of eradicating extreme poverty, covering those living on an income of less than $1.25 a day between 1990 and 2015, according to UNDP reports. However, Egypt has failed to meet other goals, such as gender equality. The proportion of seats held by women in both houses of Parliament is still far below equality targets, with the goal of 50% not expected in 2015.
