The United Nations has hailed its millennium development goals the most successful poverty movement in history as it gears up to sign off on even more ambitious targets in coming months.
The UN released its final report on the 15-year goals in the early hours of Tuesday morning (AEST).
The eight goals and their 21 targets expire in December and will be replaced with 17 sustainable development goals and 169 targets, to be adopted at a UN meeting in New York in September.
While UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged there had been some excellent gains, he lamented progress across countries and regions had been uneven and that significant gaps remain.
"We now know that extreme poverty can be eradicated within one more generation," he said in a statement.
Among the achievements is one billion people since 1990 have been lifted out of extreme poverty, which is defined as people living on less than $US1.25 ($A1.67) a day. But 836 million remain in poverty.
The number of youngsters dying before their fifth birthday has dropped from 90 in every 1000 in 1990 to 43 in every 1000.
There are also inroads made against global hunger, improved access to drinking water and sanitation, primary school enrolments are up and the rate of new HIV infections has fallen by 40 per cent from 2000-2013.
Australia's immediate neighbourhood has a lot more work to do in some areas.
Progress has been slow on hunger reduction in Pacific island countries because a heavy dependence on food imports and food security being threatened by natural disasters results in rising food prices, the report said.
The Asia Pacific region also has a long way to go on gender equality and improving women's representation in parliaments, as well as increasing access to sanitation and reproductive health care.
Conflicts remain the biggest threat to human development, with 60 million people forced to abandon their homes last year, the report said.
The UN is pleased that foreign aid has increased from $81 billion in 2000 to $135 billion in 2015.
Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and Britain are exceeding the target of giving 0.7 per cent of their national income, but Australia is going backwards with aid set to plummet to 0.22 per cent by 2016-17.
Oxfam spokeswoman Jo Pride urged the Abbott government to commit adequate funding to the next set of development goals.
"There is still a lot to be done and this has not been helped by governments like Australia not keeping up their end of the bargain," she told AAP.
AAP lpm/pjo/rwj
MEETING MILLENNIUM GOALS
* Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
1990 - extreme poor living on less than $US1.25 a day: 1.926 billion
1999 - 1.751 billion
2015 - 836 million
* Universal primary education
2000 - 100 million children out of school
2015 - 57 million
* Gender equality
Women MPs in nearly 90 per cent of 174 countries over the past 20 years. Yet only one in five MPs are women.
* Reduce child mortality
Global under-five mortality rate has dropped from 90 to 43 deaths per 1000 live births between 1990 and 2015.
* Improve maternal health
1990 - 380 deaths per 100,000 live births
2000 - 330
2013 - 210
* Combating HIV
New HIV infections fell by 40 per cent between 2000 and 2013
* Environmental sustainability
1990 - access to piped drinking water: 2.3 billion
2015 - 4.2 billion
* Global partnership for development
Official development assistance (aid)
2000: $81 billion
2015: $135 billion
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