UN Deputy Chief urges intensified action toward anti-poverty goals

"That is our strong belief. It is the belief of the Secretary-General as well," said UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro when asked if she believes the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be realised as envisioned by 2015.

To this end, the United Nations is sponsoring a high-level event on the sidelines of the upcoming General Assembly's annual debate, due to run from Sept. 23 to Oct. 1, to galvanize actions toward the eight anti-poverty targets that world leaders agreed in 2000, Migiro told Xinhua.

The high-level meeting on the MDGs scheduled for Sept. 25 follows the high-level meeting on Africa's development needs on Sept. 22, and is expected to bring together representatives from 150 countries, including nearly 100 heads of state or government.

"It will be the first time that world leaders will meet to assess the implementation of the MDGs," Migiro said.

Now already half-way to 2015, progress has been made in a number of MDGs, but not in all, Mirgiro said, noting that the challenge is "immense" in Africa where progress toward MDGs implementation has been "fairly slow.'

Dubbed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the 'triple crisis," climate change, rising food prices and the fuel crisis are compounding challenges, she added.

Apart from its impact on food production which affects food supply and even leads to riots in some countries, climate change can also have negative effects on infrastructure by bringing about destructive floods.

Fuel crisis, she said, can also cause shortages in food supply because even in times of bumper harvest, rising fuel costs would make it too expensive to transport food.

A new UN report warned that higher food prices may push 100 million people deeper into poverty, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, the regions with the largest numbers of people living in extreme poverty.

Many of the MDGs and related targets are in danger of going unmet by 2015 without redoubled efforts in developing countries, a sustained favourable international environment for development and increased donor support, said the Millennium Development Goals Report 2008.

"If no concrete action is taken now, we run the risk that by 2015 these goals will not be attained," she warned. "This is of critical importance to us... failure is not an option."

In terms of building a global partnership for development, which is the eighth goal, there has been more words than action as donors have yet to fulfill commitments to helping their developing partners, leaving a gap of 10 billion U.S. dollars by 2007, she said.

Donors will need to increase their development assistance by 18 billion U.S. dollars a year between now and 2010 if they are to meet their previous pledges, said another UN report entitled "Delivering on the Global Partnership for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)."

Although donor countries have stepped up official development assistance (ODA) since 2000, aid flows have actually declined in recent years - by 4.7 percent in 2006 and a further 8.4 percent in 2007, it said.

At the 2005 Group of Eight Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, donor countries promised to increase the total ODA flow by 50 billion dollars per year by 2010, but delivery is falling short.

The UN has already taken action to try to reverse the trend. For instance, Migiro said, the UN chief has created the MDG Africa Steering Group, which brings together leaders from leading political and financial organisations around the world.

Besides developed countries, the world body seeks support from developing countries as well, she said. "We look at giant economies like China, which has done a lot to support South-South cooperation."

When asked what the world body hopes to achieve through the high-level event, she said: "We want to use the momentum created to galvanise more concrete and effective action toward supporting the implementation of the MDGs."

"Our major expectation is that after the meeting, there will be intensified action," she said. "The meeting should be used as a jump-start of intensified action."

She also hoped that the meeting would help forge partnerships, not only between countries, but also with different stakeholders in the private sector, philanthropists, the civil society as well as faith-based organizations.

The Deputy UN Chief further expected the event to boost the Doha negotiations and produce far-reaching effects, by sending "a signal that stakeholders are ready and commitments have to be met."

"This will be a building block. It will not stop in September. It will not stop in Doha," she said. "This is the process that has to continue."

She added that the UN chief has recently called upon member states to consider having another review in 2010, years before the targets are supposed to be realised.

-Xinhua