Note to Correspondents

GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO SEEK URGENT ACTION ON POVERTY, EDUCATION, HEALTH

TO ACHIEVE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

 

Special Debate at United Nations Headquarters 1-2 April

With progress lagging in the global attempt to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a special two-day debate in New York on 1-2 April to accelerate progress and to help tackle the most intractable problems.

The debate, “Recognizing the achievements, addressing the challenges and getting back on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015”, will concentrate on the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating malaria and other diseases.

“The poverty, education and health Goals are the areas where progress is most urgently required and where experience suggests that positive results have a catalytic effect on the other Goals,” says United Nations General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim.

President Kerim, who has made the Millennium Development Goals one of his priorities, says the debate comes at a time when “it is already clear that our pace is too slow”.

According to United Nations statistics, the absolute number of poor in sub-Saharan Africa is still rising and projected to stand at 360 million by 2015.  Globally, around 72 million primary age children are not enrolled in school.  And every year, more than half a million women lose their lives to causes related to childbirth, almost 10 million children die before reaching their fifth birthday and an estimated 1.7 million people in Africa become infected with HIV.

“We face a race against time,” says President Kerim.  “We must now demonstrate the political will and turn our promises into action.”

The debate, according to Mr. Kerim, will also be an opportunity to set the overall strategic course for a series of development meetings that will take place this year, including a high-level event to be convened jointly by the General Assembly President and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 25 September.  “The General Assembly must send a strong message to the rest of the world; a message that is carried to inspire the many conferences and summits on development this year,” President Kerim says.  “2008 is the year of action.”

The General Assembly debate will bring together representatives from academia, business, Government, non-governmental organizations and the United Nations system.  “Achieving the MDGs is fundamentally a test of our global partnership on development,” says President Kerim, “a partnership that goes beyond cooperation among Member States to include the private sector, civil society and the global public.”

A panel discussion on the morning of 1 April will focus on the issues related to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.  Two parallel afternoon panels will look at lessons learnt and action needed to achieve the education and health goals.  Ted Turner, Chairman of Turner Enterprises and of the United Nations Foundation, will be the keynote speaker at a luncheon hosted by the General Assembly President.  During the debate on 2 April, Member States will discuss the issues of poverty, health and education.

A press briefing with General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim and entrepreneur Ted Turner will be held on 1 April at 12:30 p.m. in Room S-226.

The event will be webcast live at www.un.org/webcast.

For more information, please contact Janos Tisovszky, Spokesperson for the General Assembly President, tel.: +1 917 367 2068, e-mail: tisovszky@un.org; or Martina Donlon, United Nations Department of Public Information, tel.: +1 212 963 6816, e-mail: donlon@un.org;  or visit www.un.org/ga/president/62/ThematicDebates/mdgthematicdebate, www.un.org/millenniumgoals.

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For information media • not an official record