|
Written by Sherry
|
|
Thursday, 11 October 2007 14:54 |
According to the Executive Summary of the UN's State of the Future:
People around the world are becoming healthier, wealthier, better educated, more peaceful,and increasingly connected and they are living longer, but at the same time the world is more corrupt,congested, warmer, and increasingly dangerous.
Good news:
The global economy grew at 5.4% in 2006 to $66 trillion (PPP).
The average world per capita income grew by 4.3%
At this rate world poverty will be cut by more than half between 2000 and 2015, meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal for poverty reduction except in sub-Saharan Africa
The vast majority of the world is living in peace,
conflicts actually decreased over the past decade,
dialogues among differing worldviews are growing,
intra-state conflicts are increasingly being settled by international interventions,
and the number of refugees is falling.
The number of African conflicts fell from a peak of 16 in 2002 to 5 in 2005.
According to WHO, the world’s average life expectancy is increasing from 48 years for those born in 1955 to 73 years for those who will be born in 2025.
According to UNESCO, in 1970 about 37% of all people over the age of 15 were illiterate. That has fallen to less than 18% today.
Between 1999 and 2004 the number of children without primary
education fell by around 21 million to 77 million.
According to Freedom House, the number of free countries grew from 46 to 90 over the
past 30 years, accounting for 46% of the world's population, and for the past several years 64% of countries have been electoral democracies.
Since democracies tend not to fight each other and since humanitarian crises are far more likely under authoritarian than democratic regimes, the trend toward democracy should lead to a more peaceful future among nation states.
Over a billion people (17.5% of the world)are connected to the internet.
World trade grew 15% in 2006, according to the WTO. Higher oil and commodity prices contributed to the 30% trade growth for the least-developed countries—a world record—and their economies continued to exceed 6% for the third year in a row. The debt-to-GDP ratios decreased in all developing regions, partly due to debt forgiveness.
Where we are winning:
• Life expectancy
• Infant mortality
• Literacy
• GDP/cap
• Conflict
• Internet users
|
Intentional Disciples Blog 
