If indicators including literacy, health and life expectancy are used to measure development progress over the past couple of decades, few would argue against the assertion that people now are generally better off than they were 30 years ago.
Prior to the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in New York in September, the United Nations published a report on the results of the Millennium Development Goals — the SDGs' predecessor — and the findings were cause for optimism.
In 2015, the number of people living in extreme poverty decreased to 836 million from 1.9 billion at the turn of the millennium; the number of out-of-school youth declined to 57 million from 100 million over the same period; and average life expectancy increased by six years since 1990, according to the World Health Organization.