Informal Thematic Debate

on Millennium Development Goals

AM & PM Meetings

PROSPECTS FOR ACHIEVING MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS ‘MIXED AT BEST’, BUT TIME

REMAINS TO TURN SITUATION AROUND, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Assembly President Seeks to Stimulate Implementation; Speakers Urge

Scaled Up Interventions, Say ‘A Decent Crop Can Turn a Village Around’

Reporting that the prospects for implementing the Millennium Development Goals were “mixed at best”, Secretary General Kofi Annan told a special high-level meeting of the General Assembly today that it would take focus, application and commitment, including a successful round of trade talks, to halve extreme poverty and radically improve the lives of at least 1 billion people by 2015.

“It is not too late to turn the situation around,” Mr. Annan said, calling on developing countries, rich nations and donors alike to make good on the promise world leaders made six years ago at the United Nations Millennium Summit, when they adopted an historic declaration that launched a global partnership aimed at reducing extreme poverty and meeting a series of time-bound targets, all by 2015; these have become known as the Millennium Development Goals.

The Secretary-General urged developing countries to live up to their commitments to adopt and transparently implement comprehensive national strategies for reaching the targets, saying, “Development will simply not happen if the developing world doesn't get its own house in order.”

Equally vital whenever developing countries adopted sound strategies was for richer countries to live up to their commitment to provide resources to enable those strategies to succeed, he said.  Attaining the Goals on time would be “the single greatest service we can collectively perform for humanity”, he said.

Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa of Bahrain, who initiated today’s thematic debate on “Partnerships towards achieving the MDGs: taking stock, moving forward”, said the event provided an opportunity for the Assembly to make a real impact on people’s lives and galvanize global efforts to implement the Goals’ eight main objectives; to halve the rate of extreme poverty and hunger; to ensure universal primary education; to promote gender equality; to slash child mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters; to halt and reverse the incidence of HIV/AIDS and malaria; to cut in half the rate of people lacking safe drinking water, and to forge a global partnership for development.

Setting the stage for the debate, Sheikha Haya took stock of the challenges ahead and the progress already made.  For instance, some 270 million children worldwide still had no access to healthcare, and while the poverty reduction goal was being met globally, the poverty level in Africa had risen over the past decade.  With that in mind, she said the international community’s focus must be on cementing long-term partnerships for development.  Echoing the sentiments of the Secretary-General, she said the success of the global development compact entailed the adoption of comprehensive national strategies by developing countries and the delivery on commitments by donors, including with additional sources, if required.

The highlight of the day-long event was an interactive discussion in the afternoon, moderated by Under-Secretary-General for Communication and Public Information, Shashi Tharoor.  It featured representatives from Member States, civil society and the private sector, including philanthropist George Soros, of the Soros Fund Management; Hisham Alwagayan, of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development; Fred Tipson of Microsoft, and Joanna Kerr, of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, among others.

During the interactive debate, Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Goals, was among several participants speaking passionately about the situation in Africa, as the mid-point of the Goals’ 2015 target date fast approached.  He said that, while some of the world’s most rapid economic growth was under way in China, India and other parts of Asia, some of the greatest economic calamities in modern history were also taking place, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.  There were several predictors for why such calamities occurred, including poor agricultural performance, economic isolation, which took the form of geography or a lack of infrastructure, and the spread of a cluster of tropical diseases, led by malaria, but also including a host of parasitic infections.

Calling on the international community to scale up its interventions, he said that, in one year, several significant accomplishments could be made in Africa and elsewhere.  A decent crop could turn a village around.  In just one month, a malaria control operation could curb that disease, and in just a couple of months, a clinic could be built to provide basic health services.  Safe water points could also be provided, and a place could be had for every child in school, along with a school feeding programme.  No parent would leave a child at home if schools had mid-day feeding programmes.  While such initiatives cost money, they would not require huge amounts of cash to set up.

When representatives of regional groups addressed the debate, Zola Skweyiya, Minister of Social Development of South Africa, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, called on developed countries for the full and timely implementation of the global partnership for development, so that all developing countries could achieve the internationally agreed-to development goals.  The goals and targets were off track, particularly in Africa.  The Doha round of trade talks had collapsed and the economic gap between developed and developing countries was widening.  Now was the time for the international community to translate its commitments into concrete actions and reality, he said.

Finland’s representative, on behalf of the European Union, said that, while global partnerships were imperative, it was up to each country to take primary responsibility for its own development.  The Union had provided more than 50 per cent of global official development assistance, but harmonization was the key to getting better results.  The United Nations needed to harmonize with donors in the field.  Yet, increased assistance was not enough when conflict remained a major obstacle to development.  In that regard, she hoped the newly formed Peacebuilding Commission could fill that gap.

Also speaking today at the opening session were the Foreign Ministers for Barbados and Saudi Arabia.

Statements were also made by Ministers from South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain.  The Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Mongolia also addressed the Plenary.

In the afternoon panel, moderated by Mr. Tharoor, panellists included Ministers for South Africa and Bahrain.

Additional panellists were high-level representatives of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Becton Dickinson Medical and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Taking part in the interactive dialogue were the representatives of Cuba, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Switzerland, Armenia, Barbados, France, China and Afghanistan.

A representative of the African Development Bank also took part.

The Assembly will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 28 November, when it is expected to take up the situation in Afghanistan and other matters.

Statements

Sheikha HAYA RASHED AL KHALIFA ( Bahrain), President of the General Assembly, said world leaders had reaffirmed the Assembly’s central position as the chief deliberative and policymaking organ of the United Nations.  The present event was being held because the Assembly must galvanize efforts to make a real impact on people’s lives.  The emphasis must be on partnership because development goals would only be achieved if the private sector, civil society and Governments were fully engaged.

She “set the scene” for the debate by taking stock of the challenges ahead and the progress already made.  For instance, some 270 million children worldwide still had no access to health care and, while the poverty reduction goal was being met globally, the poverty level had risen over the past decade in Africa.  The situation was worse in countries affected by conflict, where less outside aid was being directed to those places, where, unfortunately, the concentration of the world’s poor was highest.  In addition, two in three people still lacked access to clean drinking water.

Meanwhile, she continued, the world was changing rapidly.  Within three decades, urban populations would more than double, thus straining such basic services as health and education.  Climate change would also create untold damage, including by reducing food production in sub-Saharan Africa by a fifth.  In contrast to those challenges, progress was reflected in concrete realities.  The life expectancy in developing countries had increased by a quarter over the past 30 years and, in that period, global illiteracy had fallen by half.  Over the past 20 years, 400 million people had been lifted out of absolute poverty.  Smallpox had been eradicated and official development assistance (ODA) had reached $100 billion last year for the first time.  Donor countries had agreed to a $50 billion increase in aid by 2010, with $25 billion for Africa.  The debt of 20 countries had been fully cancelled, totalling more than $81 billion.  Today, The Islamic Development Bank would announce an additional $10 billion in new financing for the Millennium Development Goals.

Emphasizing that social justice was critical for economic prosperity, she said a reformed and strengthened United Nations system, working together with civil society and the private sector, would be better able to build capacities.  Management of policy challenges would be the ultimate test of achieving shared goals in the areas of urbanization, water scarcity and climate change.  For example, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report argued for a “blue revolution”, or agricultural revolution for water to ensure that gains in food production were not wiped out by rivers running dry.

Concluding, she said that success of the global compact for development entailed the adoption of comprehensive national strategies by developing countries and the delivery on commitments by donors, including with additional sources, if required.  The discussions today could cement ongoing partnerships and pave the way for new ones, in the spirit of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

KOFI ANNAN, United Nations Secretary-General, said that, a decade ago, the development debate tended to be distinguished more by disagreements and dithering than actual doing.  Today, that landscape was distinctly different; discussions on delivery had supplanted long-standing disagreements over doctrine.

He said that the foundation for development had indeed been laid, but no more than that.  The ultimate test remained the Millennium Development Goals -- and the United Nations ability to attain them on time, everywhere and for everyone.  “Frankly, the prospects are mixed, at best,” he said.

Overall, although the world might meet the poverty goal, thanks, in part, to remarkable progress in Asia, progress towards ensuring environmental stability continued to lag, he said.  Furthermore, in too many parts of the world, notably a number of African countries, there was still a long way to go.  The “global partnership for development” remained more a phrase than a fact, especially in the all important area of trade.

He said it was “not too late to turn this situation around.  But it will take focus, application and commitment.  A successful Doha Development Round, especially, is a sine qua non of success.”  However, he urged participants not to forget where development “has to happen” -- namely, in the developing countries.

Developing countries themselves must live up to their commitment to adopt and transparently implement comprehensive national strategies for reaching those targets, he said.  The fact was, far too few countries had yet done that fully.  “It absolutely must be done, and done now,” he urged, adding, “development will simply not happen if the developing world doesn’t get its own house in order”.

In essence, he continued, the vision of development that lay behind the Goals was a compact:  if developing countries delivered on comprehensive, fleshed-out national strategies, then donors were committed to meeting the needs that could not be met through domestic resources alone.  There too, while there were encouraging steps, too much was still not happening.  Many donors were already falling short of their commitments to increase aid -- and the longer that shortfall persisted, the harder it would be to correct.  They must be held accountable.

He stressed that neither side in the compact could escape responsibility for delivering on its commitments, but the developing countries, especially, were entitled to expect help from the United Nations system.  The United Nations must be there to support their vision and their plans, and to help them build the capacity -- the skills, the institutions, the systems -- to deliver the jobs, houses, schools and health care that their people needed.

On the High-Level Panel on System-Wide Coherence, he said that, if fully implemented, its key proposals would significantly bolster the United Nations central role in national and global development efforts everywhere by maximizing both resources and the impact of those resources on developing countries.

The primary conduct of development work had inexorably shifted from debate halls and drawing boards to the dirt roads and dry plains where it was most needed.  The challenge was to maintain that momentum and to build on it as work continued towards reaching the Goals.  Attaining those targets, he believed, would be the “single greatest service we can collectively perform for humanity”.

ALI HACHANI ( Tunisia), President of the Economic and Social Council, said that poverty devastated families, communities and nations, while also causing instability and political unrest, and fuelled conflict.

In order to get rid of that menace, he said that international solidarity was the most crucial ingredient of global efforts.  The United Nations -- a symbol of multilateralism and champion of the global partnership for development -- could support those efforts and would do so more effectively when strengthened and reformed. 

Noting that a feature of the global conference since the 1990s had been the unprecedented engagement of the private sector and civil society.  The Economic and Social Council had engaged diverse participation, especially from developing countries, and involved non-governmental organizations, supported by regional and national networks.  Examples of innovative partnerships included the Global Alliance for Information and Communications Technologies and Development, as well as the Public-Private Alliance for Rural Development. 

He said that the adopted resolution on the strengthening of the Economic and Social Council had been an important step forward.  The Council’s next substantive session would be a milestone in enabling it to play its central role in economic, social and related issues. 

Referring to opportunities the Council could offer with its new functions, he said that its annual ministerial-level substantive review provided a new mechanism for tracking progress and promoting implementation of the outcomes of the United Nations conferences and summits.  Secondly, its biennial Development Cooperation Forum offered a platform for reviewing trends in development cooperating and providing policy guidance.  Lastly, on the issue of implementation architecture, a more substantive and interactive relationship was developing between the General Assembly and the Council.

KEMAL DERVIS, Administrator of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said that, while the growth of global gross domestic product (GDP) had never been as rapid as in the past few years -- on average -- worldwide, the “averages” could not hide the fact that that was also an age of exploding inequalities, within and across countries.  “We should also not forget that while GDP growth is essential for human development, progress must be measured in all its dimensions and include indicators of health, education, environmental protection, as well as participation and empowerment for all,” he said, stressing that that was what the Millennium Development Goals attempted to do and why measuring progress towards their achievement was so important.

As the midpoint of the Goals’ 2015 horizon approached, it was encouraging to note that, on aggregate, there had been some real progress towards achieving the targets, he said.  However, much of the progress had been highly uneven, both across and within regions.  “No region is on track to meet all the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  And efforts to meet Goal 8 –- the global partnership for development –- needs to be decisively strengthened.”  Still, some regions were better placed to achieve the Goals than others.  Those with good prospects included North Africa, which was currently on track to achieve all the targets, except Goal 3 on promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, and Goal 5 on improving maternal health. 

East Asia was also relatively well positioned and trends suggested that the region would achieve about half the Goals, but would not meet the targets on achieving universal education (Goal 2), reducing child mortality (Goal 4), or on combating HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases (Goal 6), he said.  Latin America and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region were likely to achieve five of the Goals, but south-eastern Asia was expected to achieve only three.  But sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania were experiencing the biggest problems on the road to the goals and, if current trends held, none of the countries in those respective regions was expected to meet the Goals by the target date.  Southern and western Asia were not advancing quickly enough and were likely to meet only Goal 2 and Goal 6, respectively, by 2015. 

He stressed that those predictions were based on current trends; trends which there was still time to alter, in many cases with increased resources and better development polices.  “Political will is what is needed here -- by developed and developing countries alike,” he said, reiterating his concern at the uneven growth in economic patterns, which had left many of the world’s poorest countries even further behind the richest countries than ever.  Worse still, income disparities within countries were also increasing.  But while rapid growth was important, it was not enough to eradicate poverty.  The pattern and sources of growth were vitally important for poverty reduction and achieving the goals, and income distribution affected the ability to lift people out of poverty. 

Broader economic performance considerations, such as the ability to generate productive and remunerative employment, also determined the extent to which economic growth could be more pro-poor, he said.  Among other impediments to progress was the fact that, while ODA had risen some 31 per cent between 2004 and 2005, much of that increase had been in the form of debt relief.  Without debt relief, that “up tic” was actually only a modest 8.7 per cent.  It was also clear that the international community must strengthen its efforts to prevent conflict and help countries recover from conflict.  “The United Nations cannot be successful if our actions are confined to mediation.  We must work on these root causes of conflict.  We must help trigger economic recovery.  And we must help countries make the recovery work for all their citizens,” he urged.

Turning to the role of the United Nations in driving the Millennium Development Goals, he lamented that the Organization had become too fragmented and duplicative in its work, which had often reduced efficiency.  The United Nations family had to “deliver as one”, boosting support for national strategies and changing the way it operated both at headquarters and in the field.  Critical to that effort was for the United Nations to enhance its capacities in developing countries.  The Organization could also enhance its catalytic role towards building partnerships for development.  “From trade to climate change, from financial stability to the control of infectious disease, it is only by working very closely together that we can build human security and prosperity for all,” he said. 

JOSE ANTONIO OCAMPO, Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said the Millennium Development Goals represented the accumulated outcomes of the many conferences on development.  The underpinning of all United Nations goals in that field was the struggle for equity and the commitment to realize the goals through partnerships, with the central challenge being to ensure that globalization became a positive force for all people.  Meeting the challenges went beyond the need to reduce income poverty; it entailed ensuring access to information, health care and education, and to participation in decision-making, including for those who were formerly excluded, such as children, the elderly and the indigenous.

Reviewing the conferences, he said that the 1995 World Summit for Social Development at Copenhagen had defined three basic components of development:  the eradication of poverty; the creation of employment; and ensuring social inclusion.  The 2002 Financing for Development Conference at Monterrey had set out the tenet that the main responsibility for development lay with the developing countries themselves, including through good governance.  Civil society had always been an ally of the United Nations, and now the private sector had also assumed that role by supporting the United Nations principles in the Global Compact.

He said that the principle of voluntary partnerships had become an increasingly important component of the conferences, such as at the Monterrey Conference, at which more than 200 partnerships were launched.  Partnerships were also an increasingly important element in mechanisms such as the Permanent Forum on indigenous persons or the Forum on Forests.  Placing partnerships at the centre of development work was the road to building participatory societies, he said.

AMADOU BOUBACAR CISSE, President of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), said that the multilateral development bank was dedicated to fostering socio-economic development in its 56 member countries.  As all of those members were developing countries, the Bank represented a fairly unique South-South partnership.  Fighting poverty was its main strategic objective and it had committed more than $4 billion in assistance, about half of which targeted development programmes and projects.

Noting that the Bank fully endorsed the wisdom of working better together, in order to enhance individual as well as collective aid effectiveness, he said that the Bank was working closely with its sister institutions and partners, including United Nations bodies, the World Bank, regional development banks, bilateral donors, civil society, and the private-sector.  Likewise, the Bank had a 30 year-long partnership as a member of the Coordination Group, which was a group of Gulf-based bilateral and multilateral donors that had provided more than $80 billion in development assistance, to date.

What was needed now was more aid and more trade, he said.  As such, the Bank had been among the first multilateral banks to have a major trade financing program -– mainly to promote intra-trade among its members.  In fact, of the $50 billion in assistance it had committed since 1975, more than half had targeted trade finance.

On the formation of a poverty-alleviation fund set up by the Bank’s shareholders, he said that its board had proposed an initial sum of $10 billion.  That fund would provide financing on highly concessional terms and would focus primarily on the Bank’s least developed member countries in Africa.  Its priority areas would fall within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals, with a special focus on primary education, particularly for girls; health, with a focus on malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS; agriculture; micro-finance, and infrastructure development.  In addition, the Bank was developing a major anti-malaria program in Africa.  On funding, Saudi Arabia had already pledged $1 billion to the Fund and Kuwait had committed $300 million.

JEFFREY SACHS, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals, welcomed participants and today’s unique event and applauded the international community’s growing awareness of the importance of the anti-poverty goals ahead of the 2015 target date.  “What we are seeing today is the world coming together to fight a scourge that must be defeated and to take advantage of the historic opportunity that is before us.”  Indeed, much had been achieved, but one special accomplishment had been that the Millennium Development Goals had given hope to the world.

Through all that had happened on the international scene during the past six years, the Goals had “never been beaten down”, he said.  Day in and day out, word of the Goals had been spread.  In his travels, he heard people talking about the Goals in the smallest villages and the largest cities.  That was a major accomplishment because, unfortunately, many of the promises made and targets set by Member States were never discussed outside the Assembly Hall.  “But we do hear the call from the villages and communities around the world,” he said.  And, while all suffering in the world could not be alleviated, there was still no excuse for people to die from poverty today.  Those deaths were simply “stupid”.

“We can end that suffering in real time.  We can be the generation that ends poverty on the planet,” he said, stressing that, in the wake of the Secretary-General’s call six years ago that had sparked the worldwide drive to achieve the Goals, the international community had come to understand that practical, measurable, definable and low-cost strategies could not only help the poor stay alive, but give them a foothold on the ladder of economic development.  The objective of the Millennium Declaration was not to make people in developing countries “rich”, but to put them on the simplest, most direct path to sustainable socio-economic development.

Towards that goal, he reminded the Assembly that it was as simple as it was practical to provide insecticide-treated bed nets to people in malaria endemic countries.  Also, relatively simple steps taken in other areas could double or triple the yield in the agricultural crops of Africa, or improve sanitation and access to clean water supplies elsewhere.  The international community also knew that information and communication technologies could reach any village in any remote corner of the world.  That made those villages part of the global discussion and gave the inhabitants access to helpful information on current socio-economic development initiatives. 

“Our challenge is to get focused, because we are a rich world filled with people dying of poverty.  We must scale up our interventions,” he said, calling for proven and practical interventions -- and for more resources to be targeted towards such initiatives -- as clean water programmes, campaigns for distributing treated bed nets and innovative programmes targeting rare but deadly tropical diseases.  By example, he drew attention to the momentum surrounding Africa’s historic “Green Revolution” project.  “All of us can contribute to this.  We can put something aside for those who don’t have help,” he said, adding that the international community was “halfway there”, and that it had the power, finances and resources to help the world’s poor complete the journey.  He called on all delegations to take advantage of today’s informal hearings to renew and reinforce their commitment to the Goals.

Interactive Debate

OSMAN MOHAMED OSMAN, Minister of Economic Development of Egypt, expressing his gratitude that Egypt had been selected as a successful model in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, said the crux of the global partnership for development remained in the evolving nature of the relationship between developing and developed countries.  That relationship was shifting from a recipient and donor relationship, with conditions and constraints, to a new relationship that helped developing countries achieve rapid economic growth, enabling those countries to become full partners with developed countries.  Egypt’s experience had been the result of successful planning and correct implementation, as well as a multidimensional development orientation that was based on a deep understanding that economic and social reforms must be linked to comprehensive political reforms.  As it moved ahead with political reform, Egypt executed an economic and social reform plan that was not confined to the Millennium Development Goals, but was aimed at reaching long-term sustainable development and enhanced living standards of Egyptian citizens.

He said his country could not have achieved such success without a real partnership among the leadership, the Government and the people, and without adherence to the basic concepts of Egyptian culture and Islamic civilization; co-existence and tolerance, and a denouncing of hatred and extremism.  To help developing nations fully implement the Goals, the development partners needed to fulfil the obligations reached during United Nations Conferences and Summits.  That also required honest and full implementation of all relevant General Assembly and ECOSOC resolutions.  Egypt also expected its development partners to fulfil their ODA targets and lift existing restrictions on trade and the free movement of people and capital.  The development partners should also help to create an international atmosphere conducive to developing countries’ efforts to achieve sustainable development.  Finally, the General Assembly should emphasize the “organic bond” created by the 2005 World Summit among the four main pillars; development; peace and security; human rights; and institutional reform.

SAIFIEV MARUF, Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade of Tajikistan, said his country’s national development strategy had been prepared in collaboration with the World Bank and United Nations Development Programme, among others, and had been approved on 25 September along with the national poverty reduction strategy.  Many factors contributed to poverty in the country, including its landlocked position and distance from developed markets; a geographic fragmentation into regions; low market intensity; regional political instability; inadequate production during Soviet times; reduction of physical and human capacity and finally, the high costs of disaster mitigation and combating of drug trafficking and terrorism.  Implementing the strategies, therefore, met numerous challenges, including fragmentation of the process, uncertainty about such elements as cost estimates and lack of harmonization with donors.

He said that the two strategies formulated in 2005 sought to bring the country’s development process in line with the Millennium Development Goals.  The national strategy was a long-term strategic document that defined pubic policy issues aimed at reducing poverty through sustained high economic growth.  The poverty reduction strategy was a mid-term social economic development plan, which detailed implementation of the national aims and priorities.  Both built on the economic development phases of recent years.  In the post-Soviet development phase, from 1992 to 1997, the major aim had been to achieve political stability and establish basic market mechanisms.  With a stable public and political situation in place, the aim from 1998 to 2006 had been post-conflict reconstruction.  The new development phase from 2007-2015 would focus on making the transition from stabilization to progress, in line with the Goals, including by institution building for national development and the building of infrastructure for economic growth, as well as increased access to social services.

Reviewing challenges, such as lack of efficiency in public administration, poor investment climate, poor implementation of reforms and poor mechanisms of enforcement, he said the long-term goal was to strengthen social and political stability while achieving economic prosperity and well-being for the nation, based on the principles of market economy, freedom, dignity and realization of capacity.  Public administration reform would be aimed at institution building, based on transparency, accountability and anti-corruption efforts.  The President’s office would monitor the reform, measures would be taken to rationalize the financing system with budgets and dialogue would be increased between the Government, donors and the private-sector.

JOHN R. GAGAIN, Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development, Dominican Republic, said that, in order to ensure that globalization became a positive force for all, partnerships needed to become a way of life.  In addition, Governments across the world were confronting problems instead of preventing them.  The fact that democratically-elected Government officials responded daily to the requests of their citizens meant that, currently, democracy was not functioning adequately for developing countries.

On prioritizing preventative issues before they reached crisis conditions, he said that those issues included the search for alternative energy solutions; sexual and reproductive education; reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and global warming; crime prevention; and multicultural education, understanding other religions and knowledge of other languages.

Referring to his country specifically, he said that, without the joint support of its people, it would be difficult to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  In the education sector, for instance, his Government was currently giving school breakfasts to youth as an incentive for attending class, while offering mothers subsidies for sending their children to school.  Those investments were not sustainable, however.  Parents needed to truly understand the importance of, and need for, education in children’s lives.  Furthermore, regarding health, the Dominican Republic needed “health promoters”, those who visited homes, with the purpose of educating people about the importance of taking care of their personal health.

N. ENKHBAYAR, Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Mongolia, said that in April 2005, the Parliament adopted a resolution on the national implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals.  The resolution also provided a specific direction on adopting the Goals and added Goal Nine on fostering democratic governance and strengthening human rights.  Following the 2005 World Summit, Mongolia’s President, in February 2006, had ordered the development of a long-term national development strategy to serve as the country’s approach for reaching the Goals by 2015.  A working group, chaired by the Prime Minister, was shaping the strategy, which was to be completed by year’s end.

In other efforts to achieve the Goals, he said his Government was working jointly with the United Nations country team to implement a programme, using an integrated approach to national planning.  The process of formulating the “MDG-based” national development strategy was in its advanced stage; the President was expected to table it in Parliament at the end of this year or early next year for its consideration and approval.  After approval of the national development strategy, the Government would convene a technical consultative meeting with its development partners and donors to discuss resource mobilization.  The national development strategy would be the basis for the distribution of all official development assistance and resources earmarked for the Goals.  In cooperation with the United Nations country team and the Republic of Korea, the Government would create one integrated “MDG-monitoring system” to report on progress.

ZOLA SKWEYIYA, Minister of Social Development of South Africa, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, said billions of people lived in degrading poverty six years into the twenty-first century and a third of the way to the Millennium Development Goal 2015 target of halving poverty and hunger.  If the global community was to fully implement the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, then full and timely implementation of all commitments made at United Nations summits and conferences must become a reality.  The United Nations had a vital role to play in promoting an equitable global economic, financial and trading regime and must strengthen coordination with all other multilateral financial, trade and development institutions.

He said that the Group of 77 and China, once again, reiterated its call to developed countries for the full and timely implementation of the global partnership for development, so that all developing countries could achieve the internationally agreed-upon development goals.  The goals and targets were off track, particularly in Africa.  The Doha trade round of talks had collapsed and the economic gap between developed and developing countries was widening.  Now was the time for the international community to translate its commitments into concrete actions and reality.

The Group of 77 and China could not over emphasize the need for the United Nations to play a fundamental role in the promotion of international cooperation for development and it called for the full implementation of the “development follow-up resolution”, which clearly outlined the necessary actions, he said.  The resolution emphasized the need to fully implement the global partnership for development, including living up to commitments already made, and it stressed that all countries should promote policies consistent with commitments made at major United Nations conferences.  More importantly, the text called for stronger coordination within the Untied Nations system, as it worked with all other multilateral, financial, trade and development institutions to support sustained economic growth, the eradication of poverty and hunger, as well as sustainable development.

KIRSTI LINTONEN ( Finland), speaking on behalf of the European Union, said that it was up to each country to take primary responsibility for its development.  Global partnerships were imperative, however.

The European Union had provided more than 50 per cent of all ODA funding but harmonization was the key to getting better results, she continued.  The United Nations needed to harmonize with donors in the field.  Yet, increased assistance was not enough when conflict remained a major obstacle to development.  In that regard, the newly formed Peacebuilding Commission could fill that gap.

On reform, she said that the Panel on System-Wide Coherence and its follow-up, meant that the United Nations could upgrade its performance to deliver better results at the country level.  In 2005, the Council of the European Union had agreed upon a common policy framework and action for development.  She noted that the European Union-Africa strategy centred on achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

On trade-related assistance, the European Union had concluded that increased and more effective aid for trade was also imperative.  There was already duty-free and quota-free access on all products originating from least developing countries.  However, aid for trade was a complement, and not a substitute, she added.

Much remained to be done; new partnerships formed, old partnerships strengthened, she said.  Furthermore, donors needed to intensify their cooperation to make aid more effective.  While the United Nations could provide substantial technical assistance, inter-agency cooperation and operational effectiveness should be strengthened.

BILLIE MILLER, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, said that the Goals could be achieved only if Target 8 –- building global partnerships for development –- was fully implemented.  Such partnerships were a prerequisite for broad achievement of the other internationally agreed-to Gaols.  Unfortunately, six years after the Millennium Summit, there was little evidence that the international community was making any progress in that area.  Many of Barbados’ socio-development challenges had taken on a multidimensional, international character and could no longer be addressed by the national Government working alone.  Therefore, effective multilateral and multisectoral action was an important recourse towards the Goals’ achievement and for ensuring the primacy of the development issue on the global agenda.

She said that Member States would not only have to forge “cross boarder” partnerships within their own regions, but would have to join with a variety of public-sector and private-sector actors, including in the international development finance community, to ensure comprehensive achievement of the Goals.  Turning to the situation in her own country, she said that, in the absence of any international partnerships, the Government had identified programmes and activities that would benefit from targeted partnerships and funding arrangements.  At the same time, Barbados remained aware that it must relentlessly pursue and implement global partnerships for development, as outlined in the Millennium Declaration.

Her Government believed that the country’s prognosis for the Goals’ full achievement was “promising,” and, in that context, Barbados’ Parliament had adopted a 20-year national strategic socio-economic plan that was consistent with many of the globally agreed-to goals, she said.  Her country had achieved the Goals related to poverty eradication, universal access to primary and secondary education, gender mainstreaming, and child and maternal mortality.  It had also made progress in addressing HIV/AIDS, particularly people living with HIV, though it remained concerned that infection rates were creeping up in the 15-24 age group, despite strategies that had been put in place to curb the spread of the disease.  She added that the Government remained “intensely perturbed” that, despite Barbados’ vulnerability to the ravages of the disease, it had thus far been excluded from accessing resources generated by the Global Fund simply because of its status as a “middle-income” country.

MISHAIL BIN ABDULLAH BIN ABDUL AZIZ AL-SAUD, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Saudi Arabia, said that, six years after the Millennium Summit, more efforts were still needed to achieve the eight development goals by 2015.  His delegation was both aware that developing countries faced difficulties and paid close attention to development issues.  His Government also believed in cooperation with the international community in solving those.

He said that Saudi Arabia had made many efforts at different levels, including the improvement of legislative conditions and enhancing the complementarity between the Millennium Development Goals and sustainable development.  Further, despite there being limited poverty in Saudi Arabia, it did not mean the issue should not be given its due priority.  Strategies to combat poverty such as the Islamic Development Bank’s poverty alleviation fund, to which Saudi Arabia had contributed, helped the poor create job opportunities, such as starting family businesses.

Although Saudi Arabia was considered a developing country, it was also a very important donor country, he noted.  It had contributed $84 billion, representing 4 per cent of its GDP.  His Government had given $24 billion to more than 14 countries and multilateral organizations including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, African Development Bank, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund.  In fact, it stood second to the United States in remittances.  In the fight against HIV/AIDS, it had contributed $10 million in 2001 and an additional $10 million would also be going to the World Fund to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, he said.

SULTAN BIN SAEED AL MANSOURI, Minister of Governmental Sector Development of the United Arab Emirates, said the country’s progress towards attaining the objective of the Millennium Declaration had been under way for 35 years, due to the wisdom of the country’s leaders, which helped to create a climate of political stability and security.  The United Arab Emirates created a national development strategy, known as the Main Development Goals Paper.  It was adopted in the 1970s and included long-term development goals that meshed with the Development Goals enshrined in the Millennium Declaration.  The strategy was based on three primary development concepts:  the use of new technology to develop human resources; the emancipation of the economy and diversification of resources for national income; and support of the private sector and creating an attractive environment for foreign investment.

He said his country used its oil revenues to meet the requirements of human development by providing basic services, such as education, health and social care.  And, it paid special attention to preparing young people of both sexes for jobs that met the requirements of national development plans and strengthened the private sector.  He noted some of the country’s development accomplishments, such as a 97 per cent enrolment level among elementary school students and a literacy rate of 91.4 per cent among 15 to 24 year-olds.  The country also had two women ministers and women overall played a prominent role in consultative and representative councils and in an increasing number of legislative bodies around the country.

The United Arab Emirates recognized the importance of international cooperation on development issues and did not hesitate to extend financial and in kind assistance to developing countries and nations hit by conflicts or natural disasters, he added.  His country spent 4 per cent of its gross national product on external development assistance, in addition in its contributions in the international partnership for development, through the ratification of multinational and regional pacts on development.

FATIMA AL-BALOOSHI, Minister for Social Development of Bahrain, said her country faced many problems beyond the need to increase employment and ensure access to social services and education.  The protection of national identity was also a challenge in a quickly changing society, where youths defined themselves in a broader context beyond traditions, and where the elderly lived ever longer lives.  A framework had been set up to meet the challenges, for which the Millennium Development Goals were the guidelines.

Affirming that the challenges faced by her country were common in many other nations of the world, she said the urgency of the need to address the social changes made the many initiatives to find solutions indispensable tools, including today’s event on partnerships.  By the standards of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Bahrain was one of the most economically developed countries in the region, due in part to a high level of transparency in the kingdom.  Seeing the limitations of relying too narrowly on the oil industry, Bahrain had turned to investing in heavy industry and banking, which had been reflected in the country’s social progress.  Just this week, democratic elections were being held at the initiative of the King and the first woman candidate was running for office under the Queen’s initiative.  Both had been responsive to the changing world and both were determined to bridge the gaps between present and future challenges.

Guided by the Millennium Development Goals, she said that the “human resource” had been recognized as the most vital for raising the country’s standard of living.  The focus had been simultaneously placed on economic, social, intellectual, cultural and educational development at once, working with ESCWA to fast track measures and develop intervention and temporary solutions for social problems, while longer-term programmes were put into place.  Essentially, the State was the caregiver, while the social development strategy was worked out, based on partnerships between the State and civil society, between the public and private sectors, and between civil society and the private sector.  To signal the new approach, the Ministry of Social Affairs had been changed to the Ministry of Social Development.  That change emphasized the double role of the State in development, first in making social investments, and second in providing social protections in such areas as rehabilitation and health.  Looking at the two together enabled follow-up and assessment of development strategies.

In conclusion, she said her Government was executing the King’s directives on developing open policies to attract partnerships in all areas of life and among all nations in all regions at the global level.  In cooperation with the World Bank, agreements had been signed to protect and restructure the economy to make the climate attractive for investment and conducive to the well-being of the people.  For example, social care centres had been set up to provide shelter for the first time ever for victims of domestic violence.

VON UNGERN STERNBERG (Germany), stressing that his intervention would be brief in light of the statement by Finland on behalf of the European Union, said that, in a little over a month, his country would simultaneously take over the rotating presidencies of “G-8” (Group of 8 industrialized countries -- Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Russian Federation, United Kingdom) and the European Union.  In those positions, Germany intended, wherever possible, to strengthen the global drive to eradicate poverty.  Germany implored the international community to look beyond current success stories and find even more innovative ways to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  Another focus should be on reinvigorating the international discussions on global warming and climate change.

NASSIR ABDULAZIZ AL-NASSER ( Qatar) said the Monterey Consensus stressed that, in order to halve the rate of poverty by 2015 and reach the Millennium Development Goals, it was imperative to provide the required resources.  That Conference viewed international partnerships as an important source of funding to back the Goals and was a landmark in the process of international cooperation for development.

He said that Qatar sought to be a supportive partner of global efforts to achieve development and understood the positive impact that the Millennium Development Goals could have on stability and international peace and security.  Towards that goal, Qatar supported international initiatives concerned with development and financing and had hosted the Fourth World Trade Organization ministerial conference, which ended with the adoption of the Doha Agenda.  It had also hosted the South Summit in 2005, at which the Emir of Qatar had launched his initiative to create The Doha Fund for Development and Humanitarian Assistance.  During the second half of 2008, Qatar would host the first follow-up conference to the Financing for Development Conference in order to promote additional international cooperation in the development sphere.  He was also pleased to announce that Qatar was ready to host a follow-up to today’s meeting, which had been proposed for 2007.

Panellists’ Remarks

Moderating this afternoon’s panel, SHASHI THAROOR, Under-Secretary General for Communication and Public Information, said that the topic, “Partnerships towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Taking Stock, Moving Forward,” was an extremely important one.  Working to create better standards for all had been a priority, but the Millennium Development Goals had added rigour to addressing the injustices associated with that.

Quoting Kofi Annan from earlier this morning, he said that neither side could escape responsibility for delivering on commitments made.  Furthermore, success in meeting the Goals was indispensable to security everywhere and those Goals could only be met with help from the private and public sectors.

Ms. AL-BALOOSHI ( Bahrain) said that, when she had been appointed Minister, she had undertaken work on the partnership between her country’s Government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private-sector, to support development projects.  Bahrain had several hundred NGOs, which comprised a dynamic and influential sector in the country.  The Government helped the NGOs build capacity and develop social programmes by providing support, both financial and technical, setting up an NGO centre and providing land and assets.  There was also a partnership between the private-sector and public-sector to run services in the country.  Bahrain had started its first shelter for victims of domestic violence, supported totally by the Government and run on a day-to-day basis by an NGO.

She said that the private-sector played a substantial role in setting up social development programmes.  The private-sector had the opportunity to choose which programmes to support, like picking from a catalogue.  The private-sector could adopt a programme and provide financial support, and an NGO would then run the programme.  In such a system, the Government’s role was that of a monitoring or accrediting body for providing all sorts of services.

MAUREEN HARRINGTON, Vice-President for Policy and International Relations, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), called MCC a new United States Government corporation, which embodied a novel approach.  For one, it wished to deliver on a promise made by President Bush in Monterrey, that of offering greater assistance to countries that were doing more to support their own development.

She said that MCC’s novel approach relied on partnership.  Programmes were actually-termed compacts and funds were grants, not loans.  The Corporation aimed to facilitate growth; not dependence.  In so doing, it chose partners carefully, and those were countries with good policies already in place.  The Corporation’s board looked at 16 indicators of performance; percentage of gross domestic product spent on health; whether the environment was conducive to economic growth and freedom, and immunization rates among them, before making decisions.

Above all, MCC focused on results, she explained.  Thinking like investors would help the Corporation achieve true poverty reduction.  Ultimately the question that needed answering was how many fewer people would be poor after investment was finalized.  There were already 11 agreements in place in the amount of $3 billion.  Currently, MCC was working with the Government of Mali and a budget of $460 million to help with the rehabilitation of its airport, so that trade could be facilitated.  As for leveraging partnerships to increase success and save money, MCC was helping to build roads, designed by the World Bank, in Cape Verde.

HISHAM AL WUGAYAN, Deputy Director, Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, said that the Fund was a national experiment that was started in 1961 with modest funding.  It was restricted to Arab countries at first, but subsequently extended.  The Fund was designed to strengthen infrastructure and functioned somewhat like the World Bank.  It selected projects, carried out feasibility studies, and examined the economic viability of projects.

He said that the Fund built roads, provided electricity networks and dealt with water and sewage.  The Fund also discussed actions similar to what the Millennium Development Goals sought to espouse.  It supported the Goals, particularly sanitation and health, with a focus on children’s health and AIDS.  It had agreed with Uzbekistan to build 61 medical care centres and it had already built hospitals in Gambia and Ghana.  It was now studying other projects, such as a $20 million agreement to establish two education centres in Mozambique.  The Fund embarked on between 21 and 29 yearly projects.  It had spent $12.5 billion to date and had worked with 101 States.

The Fund considered itself obligated to provide drinking water, particularly in countries without access to agricultural projects, especially in marginalized areas, he said.  For instance, two months ago in China, it had launched a project in an underdeveloped area.  It was moving people out of the region to more prosperous areas with better water provisions.  The Fund would continue to help States that required such assistance and to increase the number of States covered.

On achieving the Millennium Development Goals, GEORGE SOROS, Chairman of the Soros Fund Management, said that the major stumbling block was Africa, a “resource-cursed continent”, plagued by corruption and conflicts associated with the exploitation of its natural resources.  Additional contemporary calamities, such as HIV/AIDS and global warming, had only exacerbated that.  Those must be brought under control and his Fund was deeply committed to fostering cooperation in order to do that.

On the Millennium Villages Project of the Millennium Promise Organization, those served as a blueprint for sustainable rural development in Africa, offering simple yet comprehensive intervention to give villagers the tools required to lift themselves out of poverty, he said.  The programme reached 400,000 people in 10 sub-Saharan countries.  He said that the Soros Fund had contributed one-third of that cost, $50 million.  The next step would be scaling up the programme, which required government support.  Hopefully, that would be forthcoming.

On the issue of Africa’s “resource curse”, he said that the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) had brought together mining companies, civil society, and governments to set specific standards of transparency and combat exploitation.  Great success had been seen in Nigeria, where the Government published a report with revenues received and how those had been distributed.  That, in turn, had successfully led to the impeachment of some governors.

He noted that, although China was increasing its presence in Africa, it had yet to subscribe to the Initiative.  In the past, a country like Angola could not get money from the International Monetary Fund because of transparency standards, but no such obstacle was in place with China.  Asking the international community to take heed, he called on China to join the Initiative.

Regarding NEPAD, he said that it had been designed to improve African Governments’ performance by introducing the concept of a peer-review mechanism.  A Soros Fund initiative, Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP), would monitor Governments with respect to commitments made after agreeing to take part in NEPAD.

Mr. SKWEYIYA ( South Africa) said that his Government believed in the need for global partnerships within the United Nations system, as the international community’s United Nations Member State fulfilled its commitments, within the limits of its resources.  The fact that the Millennium Goals had now become an internationally recognized universal benchmark on the path to sustainable development for all begged for an equally unqualified commitment for their implementation.  South Africa called on all Member States to evince the political will needed to strengthen partnerships for the achievement of the Goals in the wake of, among other troubling trends, the virtual collapse of the Doha Development Round, “gross neglect” of the 2003 Johannesburg Plan of Action and lack of implementation of the 2002 Monterey Consensus on financing for development.

He said that African Governments were responding to the many challenges facing their continent through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which sought to engage different sectors to mobilize internal and external resources for the sustainable regeneration and expansion of human capability on the continent.  “We cannot merely accept the situation that Africa will not achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  We have the responsibility to end the rhetoric and to form a global partnership that would ensure that all human beings on the continent live decent, human and prosperous lives,” he said, affirming South Africa’s priority objective to fight poverty and deprivation and to expand the economic opportunities of its citizenry.  After giving a brief overview of his country’s successes and challenges towards meeting the eight Millennium Goals, he stressed that collective and coherent action was needed in each interrelated area involving all stakeholders in active partnership.

JOANNA KERR, Executive Director, Association for Women’s Rights in Development, said that gender equality was still very low on the international agenda.  Many people in governments and bureaucracies had admitted to her that the third Millennium Goal was the lowest one on the list.  It was the hardest to talk about and the hardest to put resources behind.  There was no real incentive to take it on.  The concept of gender mainstreaming had been incredibly confused and misappropriated.

She said she was concerned that so many root causes associated with poverty were related to discrimination, but talk on ending poverty did not speak explicitly about ending discrimination.  Growth alone would not tackle inequality.  Threats to women’s well-being or men’s well-being were not associated with monetary deprivation, yet, so many instruments addressing poverty had to do with increasing income.  Where jobs were increased, they were not decent jobs that improved the quality of life.  Poverty was very gendered, and there were different reasons why men and women were poor.  For example, women had “time poverty”, such as a lack of technology to get wood, water, or to work in the fields.  The lack of land rights and gender-based violence also created and reinforced poverty.  The approaches for eradicating poverty in women and men could not be the same, but in many mainstreaming approaches, they were.

The Millennium Development Goals might be revolutionary for the United Nations system, but many parts of civil society, whose challenges were not named in the Goal framework, would not jump on board, she said.  Civil society had a role to play in holding governments and companies to account.  She noted that 60 per cent of women’s organizations were running on less than $10,000 a year.  The “MDG” framework did offer a huge opportunity.  Media and celebrities were jumping on the bandwagon.  There was a shift in the gender equality agenda.  Many governments were not just talking about gender mainstreaming, but also about human rights.  The proposed new United Nations agency for women also presented huge opportunities for scaling up.

MARKKU NISKALA, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), identified five risk areas that would have an immediate impact on the achievement of global development gains.  These risks were climate change and its consequences; the HIV/AIDS epidemic and other global health crises; increased food security; economic instability and the accompanying intolerance and social tensions, and insufficient disaster preparedness.  The IFRC firmly believed that achieving the Goals could be the best life insurance for the most vulnerable people.  That holistic global platform was needed to orchestrate true sustainable change over the long-term.  While the IFRC was a humanitarian organization, it was strongly committed to long-term development and to the achievement of the Goals, and saw the two items as inextricably linked.

He said that the IFRC offered several suggestions to help achieve the Goals by 2015.  The international community should place more resources at the community level, as too few trickled down to beneficiaries.  The realisation of technical strategies and national policy frameworks depended on the way in which individuals, such as female heads of households, were able to build skills and decide on household expenditures.  He also encouraged institutional donors to meet more regularly with all partners to improve coordination amongst them.  Finally, he stressed the international community’s responsibility to deliver on the Millennium Development Goals.

GARY COHEN, President, Becton Dickinson Medical, said that the 108 year old multinational company had a legacy of helping with global health issues.  Most of its collaborative work had focused on the needs of developing countries.  Sub-Saharan Africa had seen the ravaging impacts of preventable, infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis and it was incumbent on the private-sector to apply its core competencies to have some lasting impact.

On statistics, he said that 10 million children were currently dying from preventable causes and 3 million from malaria, alone.  That suffering was unacceptable, and, in order to break the chain of poverty, must be addressed.  His company’s efforts were focused on child immunization.  Collaborative initiatives to combat tetanus and measles, with organizations such as United Nations Children’s Fund and World Health Organization were already successfully in place and millions of children had been immunized since 1988.

Becton Dickinson Medical was also involved in capacity-building for safe lab services and establishing sites for those in China, India and the Russia Federation.  Rwanda and Kenya would follow suit.  Furthermore, he strongly advocated for increasing the number of well-trained health workers in developing countries, particularly in Africa.

Mr. SACHS said that, while some of the most rapid economic growth in the world was under way in China, India and other parts of Asia, some of the greatest economic calamities in modern history were also taking place, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.  There were several predictors for why such calamities occurred.  One was agricultural performance; almost all of the fastest-growing countries had experienced a green revolution in the past 40 years.  Typically, the poorest farmers, who were also the poorest people, did not have access to the most basic inputs for productivity, such as fertilizer and high-yield seeds, and so were starving and chronically undernourished.

He said that the disease burden was another factor.  Much of Africa was suffering from a cluster of tropical diseases, led by malaria, but also including a host of parasitic infections.  Those diseases were mostly controllable at low cost, but that was not happening.  Economic isolation was another factor, and that could take the form of geography or a lack of infrastructure.  In order to develop, places needed roads and a power grid.  Then there was a vulnerability to natural hazards, such as earthquakes, droughts, and hurricanes.  Some parts of the Caribbean and Pacific faced all of them.  Each of the above factors could be addressed through practical approaches.  Diseases could be brought under control and agriculture activity could be tripled.

Scalable, low-cost technology could be employed, he stressed.  Bed nets cost five dollars each and lasted for five years; for 30 cents a day, those with AIDS could receive medication, and a one dollar series of medications, given over three days, could save every child from malaria.  All of those things already existed, but they did not reach the poor.  One could love private markets and believe in the private economy, but the poorest of the poor would not be saved by the market.  They were too poor to be of interest to the market, and 10 to 15 million people were left to die every year.  Private and public capital were complementary, not substitutes for one another.  Low-cost interventions were needed, and that was how Millennium Villages had emerged.

In one year, five significant things could be accomplished.  Those included a decent crop that could turn a village around and a one-month malaria control operation.  If an entire country could be covered with bed nets in one week, he asked why the aim was to do that in 10 years.  Every sleeping site in Africa could be covered in three years.  A clinic could be built within a couple of months to provide basic health services.  Safe water points could also be provided.  A place could be had for every child in school, along with a school feeding programme.  No parent would leave a child at home if schools had midday feeding programmes.  There had been a large number of requests for such villages, those cost money, but not a lot of money.  As for the feminization of poverty, he said that that was real.  If you helped villages, though, you helped mothers.

JOHN HALL, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said the set of indicators provided by the Millennium Development Goals was an extraordinary achievement and assisted greatly in the work of the United Nations Statistic Division.  Much work still needed to be done on the statistical capacity of nations.  The organization remained committed to strengthening the monitoring of the Goals as a priority.

He said that a forum would be held in Istanbul next year on progress made towards implementation, and that would be followed up by others.  The first preparatory event had been held in Colombia in October and the subject was generating great interest.  The long-term debate on what progress meant and how it could be measured was providing much common ground between countries at the local, national, regional and even global levels.  The Millennium Development Goals and indicators would continue to play a major role, but by next year, planning would also take into consideration what would happen beyond 2015.

FRED TIPSON, Senior Policy Counsel and Director for International Development Policy of Microsoft, stressed the need to base partnership on a reliance of the resources that local populations could provide.  He said much of the challenge in forming partnerships for development was to give people the tools used by traditional businesses and to deliver the goods traditional business delivered.  Giving women the capability to “take on” technology was key to development and to opening the doors of opportunity for them.  “We must keep resourcefulness in mind when we talk about resources,” he said.

Interactive Segment

During a brief interactive segment, delegations called for a reassessment of progress at the halfway point to implementing the first-year Monterrey Consensus, in light of new perspectives on what was needed.  They pointed out that the Millennium Development Goals were important, but modest, when compared to the urgent need for progress.  Speakers noted the success of Millennium Villages when scaled up to the State level, and they made observations about the role of States and development partners in the implementation process, saying all had to live up to previous commitments.  The structural handicaps and environmental vulnerabilities of the least developed countries were also underscored.

Attention was also drawn to the notion that measures, such as debt relief, helped to reinforce accountability and public-sector reform.  The question was how to implement changes and fill a funding gap.  One delegation highlighted the importance of relationships based in the Diaspora.

The role of the United Nations in the success of partnerships was stressed repeatedly.  A representative of the African Development Bank spoke of partnerships in the health, water, and micro-finance sectors, in which cross-border activities such as road construction and disease control were particularly important.

Posing specific questions to panellists, China’s representative called for everyone to play their roles in improving the partnership model, particularly in spreading technology to promote free trade.  With regard to the statement made by Mr. Soros about China’s role in partnerships with Africa, he said the African countries themselves had come to China to form partnerships; China did not impose preconditions when providing programmes and projects for development.

Afghanistan’s representative asked for Mr. Sachs’s view on national development strategies, specifically, how the United Nations and development partners could spur countries to accelerate progress.

Also taking part in the interactive segment were the representatives of Cuba, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Switzerland, Armenia, Barbados and France.

Mr. COHEN, responding to the representative of Switzerland, pointed out that the WHO’s guidelines were sometimes counter-productive.  The United Nations could take an advocacy role in breaking down trade barriers where life-saving equipment was concerned.

Ms. KERR, speaking on gender equality, said it was important to be honest about where the issue stood within the development framework.  Though the security agenda was the most significant thing being debated, the development agenda needed a stronger push where gender equality was concerned.

Mr. SKWEYIYA said it was important to avoid double speak.  Though all agreed on what needed to be done, certain actions, such as refusing to restart the World Trade Organization discussions, could undermine objectives.  “Let’s rise up to the challenge,” he said.

On the issue of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Mr. SOROS said that there was no conditionality in terms of democratic forms of government.  It was a matter of setting standards and having those contribute to more effective uses of revenue.  He hoped that China would find it in the spirit of its doctrine of “harmonious development” to join the Initiative.

Ms. AL-BALOOSHI said that it was crucial to build capacity for non-governmental organizations to assume responsibility from governments.  Developing countries needed strategies to do that, as well to bridge the gap of trust between the governmental sectors and private sectors.

On poverty, many experienced relative poverty, but not extreme poverty, and that was likewise a great challenge.  For example, Bahrain had a programme in place with the World Bank, which worked on graduating people, often living in relative poverty, from the welfare system.

Ms. HARRINGTON, responding to a question on what else the United Nations could be doing, said that one additional idea could be for the Organization to serve as a forum about the different initiatives.  Specifically, it could be a useful source of information about what interventions were most effective in achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Highlighting the importance of performance indicators, Mr. ALWUGAYAN said that statistical support was also of value to national governments.  Furthermore, capacity-building was another key tool for achieving the Goals.

Mr. SACHS urged governments to seek support from the United Nations.  For one, there was an Millennium Development Goal support team on improved date collection resources.  With respect to low income countries, he said that boldness was required.  “Make plans compatible with success, not failure.”  Ambition was being suppressed, whereas that should be further supported and applauded, instead.

In regard to CARICOM countries specifically, he said, there could be better use of international financial markets and a greater degree of preparedness.  Though it was not possible to prevent hurricanes, addressing them appropriately was indeed possible.

In closing remarks, Assembly President Sheikha HAYA said that she remained convinced that the development goals of Member States would only be achieved if the private-sector, civil society and governments were fully engaged.  The United Nations, therefore, must continue to play a critical role in fostering global and local partnerships.  That was why it had been vital for the Assembly to hold an informal debate on development.  Panellists had said that it was time for action on the ground, time for new partnerships involving the private-sector and civil society, time to deliver on commitments and promises and time to move beyond the traditional donor and recipient relationship.

She thanked all Member States and panellists for their support and active participation in the event and commended the generous commitment of the Islamic Development Bank to fighting poverty with its proposed $10 billion Poverty Alleviation Fund.  She also thanked Mexico and Qatar for playing an important role in driving forward the follow-up to Monterrey, to ensure the full implementation of the Millennium Goals.  She reiterated the announcement that Qatar was to host the follow-up to the thematic debate on development during the first half of 2007.  Hopefully, the discussions would cement ongoing partnerships and pave the way for new ones, in the spirit of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

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For information media • not an official record