The eight Millennium Development Goals - which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV and AIDS and providing universal primary education by 2015 - form a blueprint for tackling critical issues facing developing countries: poverty, hunger, inadequate education, gender inequality, child and maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, and environmental degradation. The Caribbean Millennium Development Goals Report 2010 reviews progress in the Caribbean subregion towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals on the basis of the most recent data available from official country reports and statistics and identifies the areas that need further targeted intervention. It has been found that notwithstanding the impacts of the recent energy, food and financial crises which spanned 2007 and 2008, notable progress has been made by Caribbean countries by 2010 towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. However, it should be noted that there have been some challenges in the preparation of the 2010 Report, as the production of timely and relevant data to track progress within and across countries in the subregion has been somewhat limited. The most significant progress towards the Millennium Development Goals in the Caribbean has been made in the areas of primary education, child survival, maternal health and combating HIV and AIDS, in designating marine and terrestrial protected areas, in reducing consumption of ozone-depleting substances, and in improving citizens' access to telecommunications, evident from the general preference for cellular services and the shift away from land lines.