::: the ::: mdgs :::

Achieving the MDGs by 2015: Preparing the 2010 MDG Summit

2009-10-13T14:49:00.003-04:00

World must act now to achieve anti-poverty goals by honouring fiscal commitments, standing by pledges to fund implementation of targets, Second Committee told

Source: United Nations General Assembly

Date: 12 Oct 2009

GA/EF/3243

Sixty-fourth General Assembly
Second Committee
Panel Discussion (AM)

Panel Discussion: 'Achieving the MDGs by 2015: Preparing the 2010 MDG Summit'

The international community must act now to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or risk having the world becomes a more dangerous place, Jeffrey Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute and Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University, told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) during a panel discussion on "Achieving the MDGs by 2015: Preparing for the 2010 MDG Summit."

With less than a year to go before the Summit, this moment represented the last chance for the world to get it right by honouring fiscal commitments and standing by their pledges to fund implementation of the targets, he said.

The Goals, adopted in September 2000, were an extraordinary and unprecedented effort by the world community to eradicate extreme poverty. The establishment two years later of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was a major achievement, as was the Monterrey Consensus, "a superb document", which outlined financing of the Goals. The Millennium Project's report of recommendations and the Summit at Gleneagles, where Governments agreed to double the aid to Africa by 2010, were similarly important.

However, despite the dramatic results of these efforts, Governments had not fulfilled their financial pledges and the Fund could no longer subsidize all its programmes, he said. "This is not rocket science -- it's a matter of basic decency." Each year 9 million children under the age of five die from preventable diseases. "If you do not fund the Global Fund, they die. If you fund the Global Fund, they survive," he said. "There is nothing complicated about this."

Sachs called for a simultaneous effort on all eight Goals, as both poverty and escape from poverty should be regarded in a holistic fashion, and he praised United States President Barack Obama's speech to the General Assembly last month in which he expressed commitment to the targets. He was also encouraged by the American decision to partake in the 2010 Summit and suggested it become a summit of accountability, in which countries made good on their promises, while there was still time. Instead of commissioning more studies and making more promises, Governments should finance, implement and scale up what they had already promised to do. "Please, no more studies," he said. "We need follow-through now."

Committee Chairperson Park In-kook (Republic of Korea) said global trade was expected to fall this year for the first time in 27 years. Unemployment would increase worldwide, gross domestic product (GDP) would contract and up to 100 million more people would fall into poverty. There was also concern that the crisis would make it difficult to implement the Monterrey Consensus, as countries shirked on their official development assistance commitments. Tightened access to finance could further curb funding for social protection and development programmes. Deforestation and the extinction of species would continue at an alarming rate.

Last week, countries had discussed in the Committee the impact of the economic slowdown on their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, Mr. In-kook said. Countries must learn from past experiences and focus on such previously neglected areas and populations as rural communities, the very poor and ethnic minorities. The 2010 MDG Summit gave an opportunity to reinforce commitments and support for the Goals and find ways to channel limited resources where they were most urgently needed and to adjust development efforts to a constantly changing world.

Esther Duflo, Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Founding Director of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab, called for practical, cost-effective and evidence-based strategies to combat poverty. Such so-called "best buy" strategies were effective, simple and could be easily scaled up to achieve great results on a national scale. For example, intestinal worms left 400 million children in the world too anaemic and tired to go to school. But, school programmes to prevent worm infection cost just 50 cents per child annually and increased attendance by one-sixth, or 30 days annually. In Kenya, such programmes were used to successfully treat 3.6 million children. In India, basic remedial education programmes costing $2.25 per child annually had already helped 20 million children learn to recognize letters and read a short story.

The use of insecticide-treated bed nets had large social benefits, as did HIV/AIDS education and teen pregnancy prevention programmes for young girls having sex with older men, she said. Providing people with small incentives could go a long way in improving health. For example, giving a person a bag of lentils for getting vaccinated against a widely transmitted disease would dramatically increase attendance at immunization camps and clinics in areas where few people got shots. Similarly, in agriculture, simple technology and limited time offers during harvest time, instead of big subsidies at planting time, could result in bigger harvests at lower cost and dramatically increased income.

Patrick Hayford, Director of the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, said African countries, in particular, would not achieve the Millennium targets by 2015 unless the present negative trends -- mass devastation caused by HIV/AIDS and steadily declining per capita food production exacerbated by drought -- were radically reversed. Owing to the economic crisis, Africa's sustained economic growth had stalled, and commodity earnings, foreign direct investment and remittances from expatriates living abroad had dropped significantly. Africa had made many courageous efforts to achieve the Goals. The African Union had made clear commitments on human rights, democracy, women's empowerment and the rule of law. The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was an African-owned and driven blueprint for development.

But, resource constraints hampered progress, he said. In many ways, the international community held the key to success and it must support and fund African efforts on a sustained, predictable basis. "What about accountability on the side of development partners? How well is the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness being implemented?" he asked, stressing the need for them to make good on their commitments. The 2010 MDG Summit to review progress in implementing the Millennium targets must involve a broad range of national and international stakeholders and duly focus on new and emerging challenges, particularly such climate change issues as the severe drought that had ravaged development in East Africa for more than five years.

Another panellist, Olav Kjǿrven,, the Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau for Development Policy of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said that the targets were still within reach, but that to attain them, countries needed to break through old habits and "latent or not so latent cynicism". He was encouraged by today's discussion and the high-level commitment on the sidelines of the General Assembly's general debate last week.

Since the inception of the Goals, there had been tremendous successes, Kjǿrvensaid, citing investments in primary school enrolment, reforestation, maternal health, water and sanitation across Africa and in South-East Asia. The stark reality, however, was that many sub-Saharan countries were still far from achieving the targets and the impact of the food, fuel and economic crises could undo very hard-fought-for gains. What was needed before the 2010 Summit were renewed momentum, new coalitions, as well as an analysis of what works and what doesn't on the ground. "We are within reach to make improvements in the lives of millions of marginalized people," he said. "We cannot miss this opportunity."

During the ensuing question-and-answer session, several representatives expressed worries about the weak level of commitment to the Monterrey Consensus and said it was time to replace words with deeds. They asked for guidance on how to put together the 2010 MDG Summit in a way that used political and intellectual resources to best address the thorny aspects and obstacles to reaching the Goals. Should the Summit look beyond 2015 and should the MDG framework be changed? What priorities should be set in the next year and what should countries do to achieve them? What would and should happen if the Goals were not reached by the target date?

In response, Mr. Sachs said his experience in some 130 countries had taught him that programmes worked when they were specific, targeted, funded and accountable. "Keep it simple, put money in an account, ask the Government for a national plan, scientifically vet it and then hold the Government rigorously accountable for execution of the plan," he said. "This is a contract, not a gift -- keep the numbers, the audits and the monitoring." But, that was easier said than done, particularly since too few countries in need of programmes were able to pay for things on their own, and too few rich nations were making good on their official development assistance commitments. Aid agencies in the field had good intentions, but no money to pay for them. "You can't pay for this unless the world behaves like the Netherlands," he said, and added that "if you pay for it people survive; if you don't they die".

A good way to pay was through international funds such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Global Alliance Vaccine Initiative, which were very transparent and held project funders and recipients to account, Mr. Sachs said. Some 200 million people in developing countries had received free insecticide-treated bed nets since the Global Fund's inception in 2002. He predicted that a similar fund set up at the World Bank for agriculture with ready access for African agriculture ministers would enable them to double agriculture production in five years. But, many bilateral donors did not like international funds because they were too transparent and they couldn't "plant a flag" or take individual credit.

On a question over the lack of progress towards Goal number five on reducing maternal mortality by 75 per cent by 2015, he said the problem was that no single fund existed to apply strategies to curb mortality and no one wanted to finance a mechanism already proposed for that purpose. The Global Fund should be turned into a global health fund to finance efforts to end maternal mortality and tropical diseases, and to assist community health workers.

Regarding next year's Summit, he said Governments should work intensively in the coming weeks to hammer out its substance. The world could make a clear statement then to look beyond 2015 to end extreme poverty, beyond the current target of halving it by 2015. The poverty problem was compounded by climate change, an even greater threat. "This is the dry run for the sustainability of the planet," he said. "If we lose the easy goals, then we lose the hard ones in the long run."

On several questions about financing and the priorities ahead, Ms. Duflo answered that taxpayer support was pivotal and that it was, therefore, important to fight cynicism and doubt, an effort that required acknowledging both successes and failures, scrapping programmes that didn't work in order to scale up those that did. Mr. Hayford, for his part, emphasized that, with the right support, the Goals were still achievable and that new partnerships could play an important role in their attainment.

To conclude, Mr. Sachs said there had been progress, noting among other things, that China had boosted its investment in infrastructure in developing countries. But much work remained. "We are two-thirds through the semester," he said. "Will the world pass the most important test of global solidarity?"

Bono and Sachs blog for the FT

2008-09-22T18:42:00.005-04:00

The Financial Times has invited Bono and Jeffrey Sachs to write blogs during the week of the High-level Meeting on the Development Needs of Africa and the High-level Event on the MDGs at the United Nations in New York.

The following is a taste of what Bono wrote today:

Tough meeting with the Président de la République of France. He’s a tough guy. We like tough guys because they get straight down to business. They don’t waste their time or yours. The French budget is out this Friday and in it we will see if France intends continuing its leadership role on the continent of Africa. In the last few years, French aid has been falling.

My point was that as much as Africa needs French aid and the energy that Sarkozy himself provides, he/we need Africa. Why? Africa has never been so strategically important as it is now, economically and politically. Just ask the Chinese. Over a million of them now live in the continent of Africa – their single biggest diaspora...

High-level Meeting on Africa

2008-09-21T23:54:00.004-04:00

The high-level meeting on Africa’s development needs will take place at United Nations headquarters in New York on 22 September 2008. The theme of the meeting is: “Africa’s development needs: state of implementation of various commitments, challenges and the way forward.”

The meeting takes place at a time of both promise and challenge for the continent. While on the one hand many African countries have shown strong GDP growth and progress on the MDGs over the last few years, rising world prices for food and oil, climate change and intractable conflict threaten to reverse these gains. The high-level meeting provides an opportunity for world leaders to come together to renew their commitments to Africa’s development and focus attention on how to address the challenges.

In its resolution 62/242, the General Assembly decided that this meeting will be held at the highest possible political level, with the participation of Heads of State or Government, ministers, special representatives and other representatives, as appropriate. Given the importance of the issues, the President of the General Assembly has written to all delegations to encourage representation at the highest political level.

The meeting will also be attended by civil society organisations, intergovernmanetal organisations, UN agenices, funds and programmes, as well as the Bretton Woods institutions the World Trade Organization, the regional development banks, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

The meeting will conclude with the adoption of a Political Declaration.

See the programme of the meeting.

High-level Event on MDGs this week

2008-09-21T18:02:00.007-04:00

The High-level Event (HLE) is taking place on Thursday this week।

Programme

8:45 – 10:00 a.m.
Opening Plenary Session (General Assembly Hall)
Remarks by the UN Secretary-General
Remarks by the President of the UN General Assembly
Remarks by invited guest speakers
10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Thematic Roundtables* (to be held in parallel)
Roundtable I: Poverty and Hunger
Roundtable II: Education and Health
Roundtable III: Environmental Sustainability
3:00 – 5:30 pm
Thematic Roundtables* (continued)
5:30 – 5:45 p.m.
Closing Plenary Session
Statement by the UN Secretary-General

The big question on everybody's mind is: "What will this event achieve?" The jostling for media visibility among competing interest groups advocating for different MDGs is just amazing. A look at the huge number of "partnership events" taking place on or before the HLE just demonstrates the lack of coherence rather than diversity.

Controversy over new poverty figures

2008-09-21T14:47:00.000-04:00

New poverty estimates published by the World Bank reveal that 1.4 billion people in the developing world (one in four) were living on less than US$1.25 a day in 2005, down from 1.9 billion (one in two) in 1981.

The new numbers show that poverty has been more widespread across the developing world over the past 25 years than previously estimated, but also that there has been strong—if regionally uneven—progress toward reducing overall poverty.

“Our latest revision of poverty numbers is the largest revision yet because of important new data revealing that the cost of living in the developing world is higher than we thought,” says Martin Ravallion, director of the World Bank’s Development Research Group.

Ravallion refers to new information published earlier this year on the comparative prices of goods and services (such as food, housing, transport and so on) across many countries, expressed as internationally comparable exchange rates known as purchasing power parities (PPPs).

The latest PPPs—for 2005—were made available by a global statistical initiative called the International Comparison Program (ICP). The improvements in the design, implementation and analysis of the ICP price surveys for 2005 mean that the new PPPs are more reliable than older data from 1993 and 1985, which underestimated the cost of living in developing countries.

With the release of the new World Bank estimates of global poverty, however, the spotlight has once again turned on the theoretical and quantitative disagreements among economists. Reddy and Pogge of Columbia University in New York, in particular, have a thorn in the side of Martin Ravallion of the World Bank. In the latest public skirmish on the issue.

Sanjay Reddy's paper "The New Global Poverty Estimates – Digging Deeper into a Hole" provoked a reply "Global Poverty Reassessed: A Reply to Reddy" from Martin Ravallion.

MDG Gap Task Force Report

2008-09-21T14:01:00.000-04:00

Global Partnership for Development

Important gaps remain in delivering on the global commitments in the areas of aid, trade, debt relief, and access to new technologies and to affordable essential medicines. In the countdown to 2015, urgent responses are needed to bridge the existing implementation gaps to make good on the promises made to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

A recently released report by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Gap Task Force identifies these gaps in detail and provides recommendations to all major stakeholders on how to address these gaps.

The Task Force was created by the Secretary-General of the United Nations following the discussion of the Policy Committee on 1 May 2007 (Decision No. 2007/22) to improve monitoring of the global commitments contained in the Millennium Development Goals. The main purpose of the Millennium Development Goals Gap Task Force is to systematically track existing international commitments and their fulfillment at the international and country level in the areas of official development assistance, market access (trade), debt relief, access to essential medicines and technology.

The Task Force integrates more than 20 UN agencies, including participation from the World Bank and the IMF, as well as the OECD and WTO. The United Nations Development Programme and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat (UN/DESA) are lead agencies in coordinating the work of the Task Force.

MDGs Report 2008

2008-09-21T14:00:00.006-04:00

Main Report

The Report is the most comprehensive global assessment of progress to date, based on work carried out by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the official MDG Indicators. It provides hard evidence for each of the eight MDGs, showing what has been accomplished so far in each of the world’s major geographic regions. It outlines what the world needs to do to succeed by 2015. The Report may be accessed in the other UN official languages.

Addendum

An addendum to the Report reflects the new data on global poverty just released by the World Bank. These show that the number of extremely poor people in the world fell from 1.8 billion in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 2005 and that the proportion of extremely poor people fell from 41.7 per cent to 25.7 per cent over the same period. If progress continues at this pace until 2015, the world will achieve the overarching Goal of reducing extreme poverty by half.

MDGs in Africa

2008-09-21T14:00:00.001-04:00

The MDG Africa Steering Group recommendations lay out the practical steps, strategies and programmes needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in Africa. The recommendations were jointly produced and endorsed by the leaders of the United Nations, the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank Group, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, the Islamic Development Bank Group, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Bank Group.

The MDG Africa Steering Group recommendations were included in a report considered by the AU Executive Council, which met from 27–28 June. A draft resolution on this item, recommending that AU members endorse the recommendations, was forwarded from the AU Executive Council for consideration by the Assembly of the African Union, which is in-session from 30 June to 1 July. Endorsement of the Steering Group recommendations by the AU Assembly will give them further leverage going into the 2008 G8 Summit in Hokkaido.

SG Ban's High Level Event on MDGs

2008-05-18T20:30:00.003-04:00

HIGH-LEVEL EVENT ON THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SEPTEMBER SUMMIT):

25 September 2008. UN headquarters, New York, United States of America.

The UN Secretary-General and the President of the UN General Assembly are organizing the September High-Level Event on the MDGs. The September Summit will seek to be the central political development event of the year, setting the tone for the Doha Financing for Development Conference in late 2008. It will seek to mobilize world leaders including heads of state, major business leaders, civil society and religious leaders, the heads of foundations, and other stakeholders to agree on the practical steps that are needed to achieve the MDGs. The central objective of the Summit is to gather announcements of commitments for concrete initiatives from all participants that will translate their promise to support the MDGs into action on the ground.

The Summit has come and gone

2005-09-18T12:39:00.000-04:00

So the much-touted World Summit has come and gone. Traffic has been a nightmare but a small price to pay if there is progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Bolton's initial objections were withdrawn and the outcome document does contain specific references to the MDGs. Kofi Annan expressed some disappointment with issues of security etc. whcih were not full addressed. But, as far as I am concerned the big question about whether poor people will receive the attention and aid they need to get out of poverty and reduce their suffering has been answered to a large extent. Let us now see that the decisions are implemented and the promised assistance becomes a reality.

See the outcome document at the Summit webpage.

An official press release of the UN:

Culminating the largest-ever gathering of world leaders, the United Nations General Assembly today adopted a historic outcome document encapsulating a unified stance by the international community on a broad array of crucial issues, from concrete steps towards combating poverty and promoting development to unqualified condemnation of all forms of terrorism along with the acceptance of collective responsibility to protect civilians against genocide and other crimes against humanity. “We reaffirm our faith in the United Nations and our commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter and international law,” proclaimed the text of the 2005 World Summit Outcome contained in a resolution adopted by acclamation at the end of the three-day meeting that was attended by 150 Heads of State and Government.

“We believe that today, more than ever before, we live in a global and interdependent world. No State can stand wholly alone.”

Despite a number of notable omissions, the 40-page Outcome ironed out during down-to-the-wire
negotiations was described by Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a major breakthrough in several vital areas. The document, for instance, expressed strong and unambiguous commitment by all governments, in donor and developing nations alike, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and to pledges that would raise an additional $50 billion a year by 2010 for fighting poverty. It also contained commitment by all developing countries to adopt national plans for achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2006.

Another area, highlighted by Mr. Annan, the document called for timely and decisive collective Security Council action when national authorities manifestly fail to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.It set up two new bodies, a Peacebuilding Commission to help countries in transition from war to peace, and a strengthened Human Rights Council.

Major elements in the document included:
Development – unambiguous commitment by all governments, in donor and developing nations alike, to achieve the MDGs by 2015; to pledges that would raise an additional $50 billion a year by 2010 for fighting poverty; agreement to consider additional measures to ensure long-term debt sustainability through increased grant-based financing, cancellation of 100 per cent of the official multilateral and bilateral debt of heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs).
Terrorism – unqualified condemnation by all governments of terrorism “in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes;” strong political push for a comprehensive convention against terrorism within a year. Support for early entry into force of the Nuclear Terrorism Convention; agreement to fashion a strategy to fight terrorism in a way that makes the international community stronger and terrorists weaker.
Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping and Peacemaking – creation of a Peacebuilding Commission to help countries transition from war to peace, backed by a support office and a standing fund; new standing police capacity for UN peacekeeping operations.
Responsibility to Protect – unambiguous acceptance by all governments of the collective international responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity; willingness to take timely and decisive collective action for this purpose, through the Security Council, when peaceful means prove inadequate and national authorities are manifestly failing to do it.
Human Rights, Democracy, and Rule of Law – decisive steps to strengthen the UN human rights machinery and agreement to establish a UN Human Rights Council during the coming year; welcome for new Democracy Fund which has already received pledges of $32 million from 13 countries; commitment to eliminate pervasive gender discrimination, such as inequalities in education and ownership of property, violence against women and girls and to end impunity for such violence.
Management Reform – broad strengthening of UN’s oversight capacity, including the Office of Internal Oversight Services; expanding oversight services to additional agencies; calling for developing an independent oversight advisory committee, and further developing a new ethics office.
Environment – recognition of the serious challenge posed by climate change and a commitment to take action through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; assistance to those most vulnerable, like small island developing states; agreement to create a worldwide early warning system for all natural hazards.
International Health – scaling up responses to HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, through prevention, care, treatment and support, and the mobilization of additional resources from national, bilateral, multilateral and private sources; support for the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Humanitarian Assistance – Improved Central Emergency Revolving Fund to ensure that relief arrives reliably and immediately when disasters happen.
Updating UN Charter – decision to revise and update the Charter by winding up the Trusteeship Council, marking completion of UN’s historic decolonization role, and deleting anachronistic references to “enemy States.”

The week of the Summit

2005-09-12T07:10:00.000-04:00

The 2005 Global Summit will start on 14 September and there is still apprehension that a final document will not be forthcoming.

The summit can be viewed by webcast and will be broadcast by radio as well.

For New Yorkers during this week the heightened security measures at the United Nations means traffic gridlock! Know that your inconvenience is a small price to pay to get global action on the MDGs, particularly action to eliminate poverty and hunger. Isn't this a sacrifice worht making, regardless of your political leanings?

Secretary-General cuts short holiday

2005-08-30T21:25:00.000-04:00

With the US under the leadership of John Bolton the scene is set for a major reversal of months of negotiations on an outcome document for the Summit in mid-September. One key area in danger of being eliminated from the draft is the MDGs which the US has never fully supported since Day 1.

On one of the most contentious issues, development, the U.S. proposal all but eliminates any reference to Secretary-General Annan's anti-poverty strategy, known as the Millennium Development Goals. The goals featured prominently in earlier drafts of a summit outcome document, and spokesman Okabe conceded Tuesday that deleting them would be a blow to Mr. Annan. "The secretary-general and the United Nations stand fully behind the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are internationally accepted and have broad support of member states and civil society. Any effort to eliminate MDGs from the summit outcome would be setback to the global fight
against poverty and for the billions living in poverty," she said.

Crisis talks begin to salvage UN world summit

2005-08-25T21:41:00.000-04:00

The draft outcome document of the 2005 Summit is currently being hotly debated at the United Nations with just over two weeks before world leaders meet in New York to review the progress with the implementation of the Millennium Declaration in 2000. The following extract from the story published in the Financial Times lays out the scenario in New York Headquarters..

...But months of talks brokered by Jean Ping, president of the General Assembly, have instead highlighted deep disagreements over how to tackle poverty, human rights, proliferation, terrorism and management reform.

The disagreements have grown deeper with each effort to make proposals more specific.

First, an attempt to expand the Security Council recently collapsed after India, Germany, Brazil and Japan failed to secure sufficient support in their bids for new permanent seats.

The US has since thrown the rest of the package into disarray by demanding changes to almost every
aspect of Mr Ping's 39-page outcome document.

Among many amendments, the US wants to delete references to the Millennium Development Goals, debt relief, climate change talks, nuclear disarmament and a strategic UN military reserve.

Diplomats said the US was calling for a line-by-line renegotiation or alternatively, for scrapping the idea of a broad document in favour of a much shorter declaration. The problem, diplomats said, was that if countries would not compromise on certain areas in return for progress on issues they supported, the project could disintegrate.

Countries from the non-aligned movement and the group of seven leading industrialised nations, and others, have objected to proposals on a new human rights council, a peace-building commission,
terrorism, and strengthening the secretary-general's capacity to make management decisions without interference by the General Assembly.

According to one UN diplomat, the final document is in real danger. “We definitely have to work
to prevent the US proposal from unravelling the document.” The diplomat said it was possible the US bombshell would spur others to work harder for the reform package, which Europe broadly endorsed. But the mood has substantially worsened over recent days.

The idea now is for a group of 20-30 countries, which would include representatives from regional groups, the permanent five members of the Security Council, and a smattering of activist diplomats, to salvage what they can.

But recriminations are beginning over a badly managed process that did not take account of political realities, and lacked effective leadership from political and UN figures.

Many of the UN's most senior officials went on holiday for much of August, returning with only three weeks to go before the summit.

Revised Outcome Document for the 2005 Summit

2005-08-13T20:18:00.000-04:00

The negotiations on the outcome document have progressed to the point where a revised document was issued by the President of the General Assembly on 5 August. Some CSOs have posted their initial reactions to the revised document. Click here to read more.

UN Previews Possible Outcome of Summit

2005-08-08T10:26:00.000-04:00

This recent news release outlines the negotiations on the outcome document to be adopted by the Heads of State and Governments at the 2005 Summit in September.

UN Officials Preview Possible Outcome of Summit on Development, UN Reform
New York, Aug 5 2005 7:00PM

With the General Assembly’s 2005 World Summit less than six weeks away, senior United Nations officials today presented an early look at what global leaders might adopt when they gather in September to mark the world body’s sixtieth anniversary and forge a new global consensus on development, security, human rights and UN reform.

“This is very much a work in progress. We have a long way to go and a very short time to get there,” said Ambassador Christopher Hackett of Barbados, one of Assembly President Jean Ping’s facilitators monitoring the negotiations at UN Headquarters in New York at a press briefing previewing the revised “draft outcome” for the Summit, set to run from 14 to 16 September 2005.

Mr. Hackett, who was joined by Ambassador John Dauth of Australia, acting Assembly President in Mr. Ping’s absence, stressed that the revised text had been drafted following intense consultations
among Member States in an attempt to incorporate their reactions to proposals for international action on a host of fronts outlined by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the report “In Larger Freedom.”

That report was released in late March as a five-year update on the UN Millennium Declaration, in which world leaders pledged to build a better and safer planet for the new century.

In the report, Mr. Annan urged world leaders to take decisive action during the Summit on his "bold but achievable" blueprint for making the UN more efficient at tackling global problems, including by establishing new rules for the use of military force, adopting an anti-terrorism treaty, and reforming key UN organs and institutions, such as the Security Council and the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights.

Mr. Hackett said that the revised outcome document, the second update since June, is more focused on development issues, the concerns of indigenous people, as well as trade and market access. He added that some of the language had been changed slightly in the wake of the decisions taken in Gleneagles, Scotland, last month by the leaders of the “Group of Eight” (G8) most industrialized countries, particularly with regard to development assistance.

Although much work remained to be done before a document acceptable to all Member States was agreed, Mr. Hackett said it was clear that members were committed to making real progress during this “last push” before the Summit. Member States are expected to continue there negotiations on or about 22 August, when Assembly President Ping returned from his homeland, Gabon.

He said that although Member States were prepared to establish the Peacebuilding Commission proposed by Mr. Annan, the size and composition of that body was still under consideration. Discussions would also continue on matters related to dismantling the Commission on Human Rights and creating a more effective Human Rights Council.

He said that negotiations would also continue on finding agreeable language on a definition for terrorism, matters related to the responsibility to protect, Secretariat reform, and Security
Council expansion.

________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

The 2005 World Summit

2005-08-06T21:09:00.000-04:00

The General Assembly of the United Nations will hold a high-level plenary session 14-16 September 2005 to review the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and porgress towards the achievement of the MDGs. The Heads of State and Governments that will attend the World Summit are expected the endorse an outcome document reaffirming their commitment to the Millennium Declaration. Examine the draft outcome document for yourself.

MDG Report 2005

2005-08-05T12:08:00.000-04:00

In preparation for the 2005 World Summit (Millennium+5) in September 2005, the United Nations has issued a report details the progress towards the eight Millennium Development Goals, and how large an effort is needed to achieve them. The report represents the most comprehensive accounting to date on how far the world has come toward achieving these goals. While some countries are on track to achieving the goals, Sub-Saharan Africa lags far behind and will require unprecedented effort and action.

Report of the Millennium Project

2005-08-02T12:42:00.000-04:00

The 350-page long Millennium Project Report consists of four parts:
:: The first part states why the MDGs are important and explains the reasons for their non-achievement;
:: Part 2 describes what has to be done in developing countries themselves to achieve the MDGs;
:: The third part lists proposals for action at the international level to support the achievement
of the MDGs at the national level;
:: Lastly, the fourth part contains an extensive cost-benefit analysis which describes in detail the additional financial resources required so that the MDGs can be attained by 2015 at the latest.

What are the Millennium Development Goals?

2005-08-01T14:20:00.000-04:00

The Millennium Declaration was adopted in September 2000 by 189 world leaders who commited to "free all men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty" by the year 2015. For that purpose, eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) have been drawn that cope with a variety of issues such as the promotion of education, maternity health care, gender equality, poverty reduction policies, child mortality, AIDS and other fatal diseases. These goals were set for the year 2015 with reference to the international situation prevalent in 1990.