With its multitude of problems, Africa is often treated like some ailing patient by international agencies, with regular bulletins on the continent's vital signs issuing from its bedside. And in case it ever gets out of the intensive-care ward, it also has a daunting rehabilitation programme to keep up with: the UN'S Millennium Development Goals (MDGS), agreed on in 2000,which set such targets as halving the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day by 2015. Other continents have the same targets, but as the most egregious examples of poverty, poor health and under-development are usually to be found in Africa, that is where most of the world's attention is focused.
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