OVERALL PROGRESS ON MILLENNIUM GOALS UNEVEN AT BEST, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS IN MESSAGE TO HIGH-LEVEL BEIJING CONFERENCE

OVERALL PROGRESS ON MILLENNIUM GOALS UNEVEN AT BEST, SECRETARY-GENERAL

SAYS IN MESSAGE TO HIGH-LEVEL BEIJING CONFERENCE

Following is the message by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the High-Level International Conference on the Millennium Development Goals in Beijing, 25-27 March, delivered by Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD):

EMBARGO:    9:00am in Beijing on 25 March 2004;

            9:00pm in New York on 24 March 2004

            2:00am GMT on 25 March 2004

 

U N I T E D   N A T I O N S   N A T I O N S   U N I E S

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

--

MESSAGE TO THE HIGH-LEVEL INTERNATIONAL

CONFERENCE ON THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Beijing, 25-27 March 2004

Delivered by Mr. Rubens Ricupero,

Secretary-General of UNCTAD[How come he gives this message?  UNCTAD has done very little on MDGs.]

This conference marks a milestone in in our effortsthe work  to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- the launch of the first MDG report on China.  Allow me to congratulate the Government and people of China for the enormous progress they have achieved towards reaching the goals. Looking ahead, China appears poised to deliver on all of them. But considerable challenges lie ahead.

The China MDG report alerts us to growing challenges of HIV/AIDS and other health issues, rising inequality and environmental degradation.  These challenges are by no means unique to China.  They are regional and global, and .c Countries must work together to resolve them.  By opening this conference to other countries and inviting international speakers, China is demonstrating a readiness to share its success with others and to learn from them in return.  This is in the true spirit of partnership called for in the Millennium Declaration.

Ranging from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education -- all by the target date of 2015 -- the Millennium Development Goals represent a set of simple but powerful objectives that every man and woman in the street, from Beijing to Bamako to Buenos Aires, can easily understand and support.

The Millennium Development Goals are benchmarks for progress towards a vision of development, peace and human rights, guided by fundamental values of freedom, equity, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature and shared responsibility.

Why are the Millennium Development Goals different from other bold pledges that became broken promises over the past 50 years? For three reasons.

First, the MDGs are people-centred, time-bound and measurable. As indicators focused on basic human needs, they can provide clear benchmarks of progress.

Second, the MDGs have unprecedented political support.  Never before have such concrete goals been formally endorsed by rich and poor countries alike -- or by the United NationsUN, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and all the other principal arms of the international system.

Third -- and most important -- the MDGs are achievable. Take the goal of halving poverty.  Over the past decade, for example, East Asia has seen the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day plummet from 28 per cent to 14 per cent.

But so far, overall progress on the MDGs has been uneven at best.  WIn today’s world, while a number of many countries have prospered at an unprecedented pace, others have regressed and need urgent attention.  Reaching the MDGsrequireswould meancall for growth with equity to narrow the gaps between different regions -- and between men and women. We know that the empowerment of women is not only a goal in itself; it is indispensable to our ability to reach all the others.

In the cause of achieving MDGs, Tthe United NationsUN system, under the overall coordination of the UN Development Group, is moving forward in four key areas to help countries meet the MDGs.

First, we are providing sFirst, support forto  comprehensive reporting, both through an annual, global update on overall progress, and through country-by-country MDG reports to measure and benchmark progress.

Second, we haveset up aSecond, a Millennium Project, drawing on a broad range of intellectual power from the North and the South, to identify new solutions and ideas on how to accelerate progress towards the MDGs.

Third, we have launched a Millennium Campaign to build and sustain a real popular movement to support the MDGs in developed and developing countries alike. 

And fFourth,we are making a  a major effort to ensure that by all the arms of the entire UN system to provide concrete, coordinated countroury  assistance is clearly aligned behind the MDGs.

Ultimately, our activities in all four of these areas are aimed at to providinge new knowledge information and ideas to drive nationally owned development strategies.  After all, n

National ownershipof the Millennium Development Goals  isis the key to success, and a in achieving the MDGs. n integrated In this context, let me ommend China for its commitment to working towards the Xiaokang goal,and urge its Government and people to embrace approach at the national levelmustbe the the MDGs within the Xiaokang approach. An integrated MDG/Xiaokangframework under which will allow the gGovernment, the private sector and the civil society work together to commit themselves to reachlizing the MDGs by 2015. and the Xiaokang by 2020.  While the private sector should be the focus of much of the effort, it has to work in partnership with the public sector to sustain growth, jobs and opportunities while meeting the overarching goal of human development.  [What is this Xiaokang goal/approach?  Never heard of it.  We need specifics.]

This conference opens yet another opportunity to mobilize partnerships and draw ideas for balanced development in China and the region.  In that spirit, pPlease accept my best wishes for a successful conference.

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