Africa: U.N. Seeks Rapid Action to Cut Poverty and Hunger

The world's developing nations have made "significant progress” in reducing extreme poverty and alleviating hunger and disease, says U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in an year-end review of the U.N.'s much-publicised Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But he warns that progress has been hardest to come by in the 50 ”least developed countries” (LDCs) - described as the poorest of the world's poor - 34 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. These LDCs range from Afghanistan and Bangladesh to Sierra Leone and Zambia.