Great progress in fight on global poverty

Great progress has been made since 1990 in alleviating global poverty, but much remains to be done, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said in a report yesterday.

The foundation set up by the billionaire Microsoft co-founder plans to issue annual reports monitoring progress toward reaching a series of global sustainable development goals established by the United Nations in 2015.

These goals, to be reached by 2030, include eliminating poverty and hunger, providing clean water and affordable energy, and fighting gender inequalities and climate change.

The first Gates Foundation "Goalkeepers" report appears as the UN General Assembly prepares to meet in New York this month.

The Gates report focused on 18 of the development indicators set by the United Nations.

"We're trying to document the incredible progress" made around the world "including on key things like poverty and different disease areas," Bill Gates said in a statement.

Childhood mortality under the age of five has dropped considerably, from 11.2 million in 1990 to just over million in 2016 thanks to vaccinations and improved living conditions, the report said.

The goal is to further cut this number to 2.5 million by 2030.

The report highlights progress in Malawi, where one in four children died before reaching five years of age in 1990 -- but today that figure is down to one in 16.

Almost 20 million children worldwide, however, are lacking any immunization shots, the report said.

The report notes that, increasingly, poor people have access to financial services.