Achieving Millennium Development Goal 5 through Decent Work

For the first time in decades, encouraging progress has been made towards Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5), with global maternal mortality rates having fallen by nearly 35 per cent. However, among low-income countries with longstanding high maternal death rates, progress varied considerably and only 23 countries are on track to achieve a 75 per cent decrease in maternal deaths by 2015. Stronger commitments and better cooperation between UN agencies, governments and other development partners are needed to broadly achieve MDG 5.