This year the report shows that progress has been made in primary school enrolment, gender parity in primary school enrolment, the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament and HIV and AIDS prevalence rates. In spite of this progress, Africa still faces the challenges of addressing pervasive income inequalities, creating decent jobs, access to health and sanitation services.

Steady economic growth and improvements in poverty reduction continue to have a positive impact on Sub-Saharan Africa’s progress on the MDGs, the report shows, citing a 56.5 to 47.5 percent decline in the proportion of people living in poverty from 1990 to 2008.