The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009 was launched in Geneva by the Secretary-General on 6 July. The report, which presents the yearly assessment of global progress towards the MDGs, is prepared by the Statistics Division of DESA on the basis of inputs provided by the members of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators. Less than six years away from the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the report warns that despite many successes, overall progress has been too slow for most of the targets to be met by 2015. And major advances in the fight against poverty and hunger have begun to slow or even reverse as a result of the global economic and food crises.

The Report is also available in French and Spanish and will soon become available in the other UN official languages.