Guatemala Unable to Meet Millennium Goals by 2015
The Guatemalan government´s inability to fight poverty will prevent the country from fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, Prensa Libre newspaper published Sunday.

The Prensa Libre report cited information from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), saying over 2.2 million Guatemalans live on less than one USD per day.

On the issue, National Economic Research Center official Jorge Lavarreda said poverty decreased between 1990 and 2000 (from 20 percent to 16 percent) but increased in the 2000-2003 span.

Poverty went up 20 percent in that period, asserted Jorge Lavarreda, making reference to the UNDP report.

Lavarreda noted that in the Millennium Summit held in New York in 2000, Guatemalan authorities vowed to reduce poverty by ten percent no later than 2015, but that commitment is unlikely to be met if the current economic indexes remained at such poor level.

Analysts believe the government has failed to combat poverty and state-thrust action has been insufficient to change the negative social indexes affecting most people.

In September, President Oscar Berger is slated to brief the UN on the millennium goal fulfilment in his nation.

The Health Ministry reported that maternal mortality indexes were below 150 women per every 100,000 live-births, very far from the very sought-after millennium goal (55 per every 100,000 live-births).

As to children’s mortality rate per every 1,000 live-births, 59 die under five, and 44 under one.

The Millennium Goals not only seek to halve poverty but also reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger, which is currently affecting 1.8 million Guatemalans.