Goalkeepers: the stories behind the data

The progress made by Nigeria and other countries in reducing extreme poverty and disease in recent decades is in jeopardy, according to an inaugural annual report by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The report titled: “Goalkeepers: The Stories Behind the Data,” being launched highlighted past progress against some of the most devastating issues facing poor countries and used breakthrough data projections to forecast good and bad future scenarios, with millions of lives hanging in the balance. The report co-authored and edited by Bill and Melinda Gates and produced in partnership with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, tracked 18 data points from the United Nations Sustainable Goals (SDGs), or Global Goals, including child and maternal deaths, stunting, access to contraceptives, Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV), malaria, extreme poverty, financial inclusion and sanitation. It also looks beneath the numbers to pinpoint the leaders, approaches and innovations that made a difference.