DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN NEW YORK ADDRESS, SAYS ACTION NEEDED NOW TO ACHIEVE

ANTI-POVERTY GOALS -- ‘OUR COMMON VISION FOR A BETTER WORLD’

Following is UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s address to the twentieth annual meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System, in New York, 6 June:

I am greatly honoured by the invitation to speak at the opening ceremony of the twentieth anniversary meeting of your Council.  I pay tribute to the important contribution of this body to the work of the United Nations and the ideals of the Charter over the past 20 years.

The Academic Council has helped to build bridges of understanding and cooperation between the United Nations staff and the permanent diplomatic missions, and between scholars and practitioners. 

The mission of your Council has a special resonance for me, as I consider myself to be a member of both the academic and practitioner communities.  I therefore place great personal and professional importance on strengthening the already close ties that exist between you and the United Nations.

I have chosen to speak today on the “United Nations and Development”, as I believe that development is one of the greatest challenges, if not the greatest challenge, confronting humanity today.  And the United Nations has a unique and essential role to play in meeting the challenge.

As an intellectually vibrant community of scholars and practitioners, you, too, in this body have an important role to play in meeting the development challenge.  We count on your research, your ideas and your policy practice related to the United Nations system to help us move forward in our common cause.

I think it is no exaggeration to describe as dramatic the fact that the Millennium Development Goals have become our global framework for development -- our common vision for a better world.  This year marks the midpoint between the adoption of the Goals and the target date of 2015 by which we hope to achieve them.  That makes it especially important for there to be more concerted action at the United Nations and beyond than we have seen thus far.

Some progress has been made, and there are clear signs of hope.  But we still have a long way to go to fulfil the vision underpinning the Millennium Development Goals -- a vision of a world with less poverty, hunger and disease; with greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants; with better educated children; with equal opportunities for women; and with a healthier environment.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicentre of the poverty crisis.  The number of people on the continent living in extreme poverty continues to rise.  Child mortality rates are disturbingly high.  Progress towards achieving many of the other Goals is sorely insufficient in Africa.

But other regions of the world are also facing daunting challenges in meeting the Goals.  In Latin America, overall progress is offset by the existence of large pockets of inequality.  The Central Asian republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States have not fully recovered from the social and economic difficulties they faced following the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

On the other hand, small island developing nations and landlocked countries face their own special challenges, including high vulnerability to natural disasters.  And East and South Asia still have the largest absolute number of poor and malnourished people in the world.

Much more can and must be done to advance human development and human security around the world.  But it is not new promises or new processes that are required.  The world’s Governments have already made impressive commitments to support the attainment of the eight Millennium Development Goals and their time-bound targets.

They did so at the Millennium Summit, at the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development, at the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and again at the 2005 World Summit.  These commitments, if acted upon fully and in time, should be sufficient to enable the Goals to be attained.

This means that, with time running out, the world needs to focus on accelerating implementation of the existing commitments.  Concerted action now -- on poverty, on health, on HIV/AIDS, on education and on other needs -- may mean the difference between success and failure in achieving these critical targets.

Rapid progress is possible.  Recently, by taking a number of sound, practical steps, several African countries have demonstrated just how possible it is to make real progress in a short period of time.

In Malawi, for example, a voucher program for fertilizers and seeds has led to a doubling of agricultural productivity during the 2006-2007 growing season.  And in Ghana, the use of locally produced foods has contributed to the success of a national school feeding-programme.

Many nations, including my own country, Tanzania, have abolished fees for primary schools.  This measure has resulted in dramatic increases in enrolment, thus bringing us closer to achieving the Goal of ensuring that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary school.

There are many other examples, as well.  Last year, Zambia cancelled fees for basic rural health services, while Burundi introduced free medical care for mothers and children.  These practical interventions will help Zambia and Burundi to improve maternal health and reduce child mortality.  These are only two of the Millennium Developments Goals.

With assistance from several international partners, countries like Niger, Togo and Zambia have all launched national measles vaccination campaigns and distributed anti-malaria bed nets.  These efforts will help them meet the Millennium Development Goal of halting and beginning to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

Allow me to cite one more remarkable example, and this is the Millennium Villages.  This project now reaches close to 400,000 people in 10 African countries.  Empowered with proven, powerful and practical technologies, these villages are implementing community-led interventions to escape extreme poverty.  They are demonstrating how local leadership, backed up with good science and adequate inputs, can help achieve many of the Goals at the community level.

The project has shown that, in the space of just one year, the incidence of malaria can fall by over 50 per cent, universal primary education can be achieved, agricultural productivity can increase and communities can have comprehensive access to clean water.

So, let no one say that rapid progress is not possible.  It clearly is possible when there are firm commitments, sound strategies and adequate financing.

Many Governments would like to replicate the kinds of successful interventions that I have just cited.  But they need more resources to do so.  That is why donors need to increase their official development assistance to 0.7 per cent of gross national income by 2015.  They also need to provide predictable and high-quality aid.

To achieve the first seven Millennium Development Goals, we must ensure effective implementation of the eighth Goal, which is about the development of a global partnership between rich and poor countries for the betterment of all.

It is a triumph of human ingenuity and painstaking research that the Millennium Development Goals are now within reach.  Only a generation ago, many of the essential tools we use today to save lives, connect people and raise agricultural productivity were not available.

There were no improved seeds adapted to the difficult conditions of African agriculture.  There were no insecticide-treated bed nets to help control malaria. Antiretrovirals were not available to treat HIV.  Nor was there artimisinin-based combination therapy to treat malaria.  Mobile telephony and the Internet had not yet spread across the globe.  This is different.

Today, we are harnessing these and other technological advancements to help eradicate poverty, improve living conditions and build livelihoods.

Technology and science also form the basis of our modern economies and are the fundamental drivers of long-term economic growth.  Countries need to invest in science, technology and higher education to develop the next generation of world leaders.

Let me conclude with a few words on a crucial and related issue -- human-induced climate change.  As underscored by this year’s report of the International Panel on the issue, the adverse effects of climate change will be most severe in developing countries that are furthest away from reaching the Goals.  Tropical Africa will be particularly affected.

Climate change has now become a major development challenge, one that can only be addressed if we make maximum use of human ingenuity and innovation.  The role of research and academia is critical to address the challenge of climate change and its impact on development.

This is a matter of urgency that requires sustained, concerted, high-level attention at both the global and national levels.  The world urgently needs to step up action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.  At the same time, many countries -- especially the most vulnerable developing nations -- need assistance in improving their capacity to adapt.

Scholars, such as you in this Council, have demonstrated the vital importance of knowledge in understanding the complexities inherent in combating extreme poverty and in charting out a sustainable path for development.  The challenge now is to apply the knowledge we have acquired to support countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

I can think of no more demanding challenge, but also no more rewarding task, in the years ahead.  So I am grateful to know that we in the United Nations system can count on your full support.

I thank you very much for the good work you are doing.

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