MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS FOCUS OF NEW EDITION OF UN CHRONICLE MAGAZINE

Deputy Secretary-General Says Critical to Scale Up

Efforts to Reach Goals around the World, Particularly in Africa

The new edition of the UN Chronicle magazine, Issue 4, 2007, is now available in print in English and online at www.un.org/chronicle.  Entitled The MDGs: Are we on track?, the editionsurveys the key challenges in achieving theMillennium Development Goals in more than 30 articles from leading figures within the United Nations system and within civil society.   The contributions focus particularly on the achievement of the fixed targets set for Goals 1 to 7 for 2015.

The UN Chronicle is the flagship quarterly periodical of the United Nations.  It covers a wide range of information and debate on the activities of the Organization, as well as issues of concern to it.  The magazine features interviews, essays and opinions from officials and personalities connected with the Organization and its specialized agencies, as well as from academia and non-governmental organizations.

In the new Issue, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, in her essay titled “The Importance of the MDGs: The United Nations Leadership in Development”, notes that, at the midpoint between the adoption of the Millennium Declaration and the 2015 deadline for reaching the Millennium Development Goals, “large parts of the world remain off track”.  Therefore, she stresses, “Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and I have made it a priority to scale up efforts to reach the MDGs around the world, particularly in Africa”.  A crucial element in this effort, she writes, is the MDG Africa Steering Group, launched in September 2007, together with the leaders of the United Nations system and other major multilateral and intergovernmental organizations working for the development of Africa.

The edition also features important essays by the two co-chairs of the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, President Sam Nujoma of Namibia and President Tarja Halonen of Finland.  While President Halonen stresses “it is crucial that our aspirations become achievements”, President Nujoma, in turn, notes that “the most critical challenge is the mobilization of development resources”.  Also featured are special contributions by a number of senior experts and United Nations officials, including the heads of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Labour Organization (ILO), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

An article based on the historical records of the Yearbook of the United Nations, titled “A Prehistory of the Millennium Development Goals: Four Decades of Struggle for Development in the United Nations”, provides an overview of the long history of actions taken by the United Nations leading up to the 2000 Millennium Declaration, from which the Millennium Development Goals emerged.  It reminds us that “development first became a central theme for United Nations action in 1960”, with “the first wave of newly independent countries that would dramatically change the composition of United Nations membership”.

Effective 2007, each edition of the magazine features a specific theme and examines relevant issues in depth.  Previous themes include racial discrimination (Issue 3, 2007, titled The Solidarity of Peoples) and climate change (Issue 2, 2007, titled Green our World).  Issue 2, 2007 offers a range of perspectives on climate change inmore than 30 articles.  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon leads that discourse with an exclusive essay titled “Now is the Time”.

The UN Chronicle magazine is available at the United Nations Bookshops at the Organization’s Headquarters in New York and in Geneva, and subscriptions can be made online at the UN Chronicle website (http://www.un.org/chronicle) or directly through United Nations Publications (https://unp.un.org).

For more information, contact Yvonne Acosta at +1 212 963 7214, or e-mail: unchronicle@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record