The first target, aiming to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty, saw progress. Poverty rates since the turn of the millennium have been halved. Additionally an incredible 700 million people moved out of the extreme poverty bracket between the two decades from 1990 to 2010. Yet, despite the progress, one in eight people still go to bed hungry, one in six children are underweight and a worrying one in four are stunted in their growth. In a turn of events, seven percent of children under five are overweight, representing the alternative side to malnutrition. And so, goal 1. gets the orange light, giving credit to what’s been achieved, but we stand far from completely eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

Attempts to achieve this goal date back to the early twentieth century, and unfortunately, the MDGs have not made enough progress. In 2011, 57 million children were either unable to go to school or were denied primary education. More than half of these children live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Directly related to this lack of education, we find 123 million youth lacking of basic reading and writing skills, with 61 percent of them being young women. One would think this presents a clear direction; have gender equality underlying all future education programs and focus effort towards African nations. Given the lack of progress on this front, this goal receives the red light.

Our first green light gets awarded to goal number 3. Gender equality and empowerment of women has seen a radical shift forward. An increasing number of states, including Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway and many others have had female heads of states - inspiring women around the world. Furthermore, a remarkable 40% of global non-agricultural wage earning jobs are now held by women. Attributed perhaps to near perfect gender parity in primary education. The way forward is for secondary education programs to now operate under a gender lens, helping us achieve complete gender equality.

Although the global population has grown, the number of deaths under five have declined from 12.4 million in 1990 to 6.6 in 2012. A remarkable decrease of 17,000 less deaths a day. Global health initiatives and vaccinations have lead to saving over ten million lives from measles and multiple other diseases. With such progress, this goal receives a clear green light. The post 2015 agenda should look at focusing future initiatives towards sub-saharan Africa, where the largest proportion of mortality occurs today.

Maternal mortality has declined significantly since 1990, yet the MDG target remains well out of reach. The reasons link intricately to goals 1 and 2. Understandably, poverty stricken regions suffer from a lack of education, subsequently contributing to high adolescent birth rates. Furthermore, family planning remains underfunded and only 50% of women in developing countries receive the required health checks. There are positives; with South-East Asia and Northern Africa seeing a two-third decrease in maternal mortality. As a result, this goal receives the orange light, with a clear direction of what needs to be done to improve maternal health post 2015.

Medical advances have lead to radical progress across global health issues. 230,000 less children were diagnosed with HIV in 2011 than 2001. In the same decade, over a million deaths related to malaria were averted alongside eight million people receiving treatment for HIV. Polio eradication has reached its final stages whilst simultaneously, treatment for tuberculosis has saved an astonishing twenty-million lives between 1995 and 2011. Global health initiatives are definitely heading in the right direction. Future governments, partnered with WHO should take advantage of this momentum in the post-2015 agenda.

This green mission receives a bold red light. Global greenhouse emissions have resumed an upward direction and to make matters worse, deforestation is taking place at alarming rates. Since 1990, global Co2 emissions have increased by 46 percent, over 60% of marine stock has been over-exploited and an increasing number of species is approaching extinction. The positive is that a third of the global population has gained access to sanitation facilities and improved water sources since 1990. Yet this is not enough to salvage the fact that 863 million still live in slums and the global environmental condition deteriorates. Global leadership must take more responsibility in protecting the conditions of our planet for the future.

We have seen mixed results in aiming to establish global partnerships for development in aid, trade, debt relief and ICT’s. Aid has increased, but the 0.7% of GDP to ODA target was only achieved by five states in 2013 - Scandinavian nations, Luxembourg and the UK (for the first time). With new additions to the donors list, it appears things are looking up. Yet, more focus needs to be given to global health partnerships and hidden private sector agendas should be discouraged. Former greats such as Australia and Canada need to resume their global citizenship roles, guiding this goal towards a green light in the post 2015 agenda.

Our predecessors have made progress, and set us along the right track. Now the onus is on our generation to make sure the green light is achieved across the spectrum through the Sustainable Development Goals.

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Zubin Malhotra