World leaders seek new ways to reach MDGs
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COMMENTS 
World leaders are kicking off a summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York to hammer out new ways to meet ambitious targets set a decade ago to cut poverty, millions of avoidable deaths and improve equality, by 2015
United States President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are among the leaders who will put forward rival plans to get the badly-behind-schedule Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back on track.
Most experts say it will be impossible to meet any of the goals, which range from cutting the number of people in extreme poverty by half and the number of children who die before reaching the age of 5 by two-thirds, to fairer trade and spreading the Internet to the world’s poor.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon says more money and political will is needed to give new life to the MDG campaign. According to aid groups, the European Union is expected to announce $1 billion of MDG funds, and the World Bank $750 million for education.
That still leaves more than $120 billion to be found over the next five years, and the financial crisis has undermined much of the global community’s ability to find new funds. But the UN chief says he is confident this week’s meeting will “mobilise billions of dollars”.
“I know there is scepticism, but this MDG is a promise, a blueprint by the world’s leaders to lift billions of people out of poverty. This must be met and delivered,” Ban said in a media interview ahead of the summit.
Leader after leader of the main UN agencies have painted the same grim picture however. Proposals to change strategy to make up the delays and shortfalls, even taxes on plane tickets, the Internet, mobile phones and financial transactions will be discussed at the summit.
The 140 heads of state and government at the MDG summit plan to make a solemn declaration on the importance of the goals, which also aim to reach universal primary education, halt the spread of AIDS and take major steps to empower women.
But the main summit document acknowledges that the financial crisis has increased inequality and vulnerability around the world, and halted progress made after the 2000 millennium summit. Some in the UN are counting on help from big business, Bill Gates-style philanthropy, and charities to help out governments.
“The path that will be set at the summit will determine the direction and results, success or failure, of the entire MDG venture,” says Olav Kjorven, a senior official in the UN’s main development agency, the UNDP.
“With five years to go, it’s a moment of truth for the whole international community,” he says.
For detailed coverage, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11364717.
Source: AFP, September 20, 2010
Reuters, September 20, 2010
BBC, September 20, 2010