Key facts

Progress towards Millennium Development Goals

Eritrea is making good progress on some MDG indicators, particularly relating to reducing child mortality. However, progress on others is much slower and there is a lack of up to date data available for monitoring

MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
The latest poverty data relates to 1994 and indicates that 53% of the population lived below the national poverty line. However, there is no later information on which to assess progress. The prevalence of underweight children fell slightly from 41% in 1993 to 40% in 2002.

MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
Primary school enrolment initially rose from 14% in 1991 to 49% in 2002 but has since fallen to 42% in 2007. Similarly primary completion rates increased from 23% in 1995 to 51% in 2005 with a subsequent fall to 46% in 2007.

MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Since 1999, the gender parity index in primary education has remained stable at around 0.8 meaning that a higher proportion of primary school aged boys are in school than primary school aged girls. This is below the Sub-Saharan Africa average and the inequality is greater at the secondary level.

MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
Good progress has been made to reduce child mortality which fell from 147 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 70 in 2007.  95% of children were immunised against measles in 2007 compared to only 34% in 1993.

MDG 5: Improve maternal health
Eritrea has a high maternal mortality ratio of 450 deaths per 100,000 live births. However, this is much lower than the Sub Saharan Africa average of 900. The proportion of births attended by skilled personnel increased from 21% in 1995 to 28% in 2002.

MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
The proportion of people living with HIV/AIDS has increased very slowly from less than 1 per cent in 1990 to an estimated 1.3% in 2007. The TB death rate has been falling from 23 deaths per 100,000 in 1996 to 16 deaths per 100,000 in 2007.

MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Access to an improved water source has increased from only 43% in 1990 to 60% in 2006. Access to sanitation is much lower and progress very slow with only a small increase from 3% access in 1990 to just 5% in 2006.

MDG 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Part of this MDG aims to make available the benefits of new technologies, including communications. In Eritrea, the number of mobile phone subscribers is currently 1.7 per 100 population and the number of internet users is 2.5 per 100 population.