“We have a collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level. As leaders we have a duty therefore to all the world’s people, especially the most vulnerable and, in particular, the children of the world, to whom the future belongs.” (Millennium Declaration, 2000)

What is the bare minimum required for a decent life for all? The world leaders who signed the Declaration did not define it clearly, but its principles are embedded in the commitment to achieve certain targets by 2015. Some of these goals are set “for all” (100% basic education, 100% access to water and sanitation), while others aspire, for example, to “reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger”. Such a reduction would be a major achievement… but still leave the other half hungry. When will we achieve the basic standards of material dignity for all the world’s people? Not in a hundred years unless we substantially accelerate the current trends of progress in the social areas!

In the following graphs, the date for achieving the listed minimum standards of life for all was estimated by projecting to the future the average progress rates of the indicators in each category as registered between 1990 and the latest available statistics.