Common Wealth of Independent States and South- Eastern Europe

• Overall, an uneven progress is slowing the drive to meet the MDGs in this region

• The proportion of people living in extreme poverty jumped from less than 1% in 1990 to 5.5% in the CIS and 1.3% in South-Eastern Europe in 2004, and then fell back to the lowest levels of the pre-transition period of the 1980s

• The slowdown in extreme poverty was accompanied by rising rates of income inequality in the region

• There is a sharp distinction between CIS countries in Europe and CIS countries in Asia.

• The mortality rate for children under the age of 5 declined significantly in the European parts of the CIS and South-Eastern Europe, dropping to 17 deaths per 1,000 births. By contrast, in the Asian CIS countries, child mortality is the third highest among all regions

• Primary school enrolment levels in the Asian CIS countries, which were lower than CIS Europe’s in 1990, rose steadily throughout the transition period, reaching 94% in 2005.

• The region’s slow pace in addressing such problems as poverty eradication, prevention of major infectious diseases (the cases of tuberculosis doubled from 83 per 100,000 in 1990 to 163 cases per 100,000 in 2000), and gender equality has impaired progress in moving more rapidly towards implementation of the MDG targets.