Development

The Preparatory Committee for the upcoming Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held an organizational session today to assess preparations thus far for the event and to encourage delegates to give their input on the structure and themes of the Conference’s eventual outcome document.

The United Nations Global Pulse project brings together more than 100 technology and data experts this week in a workshop to design the architecture of a software platform that will help monitor the social and economic impact of global crises in real time.

Seizing the momentum created by the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals in September, the international disability community and advocates around the world will stand together with Governments, global leaders, policy makers and other stakeholders, to call for inclusion of persons with disabilities and their needs in all aspects of development efforts, when they commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December.

Twenty-one Member States pledged approximately $470 million today at an event in support of United Nations development activities for 2011.

World Statistics Day, celebrated for the first time on 20 October 2010 worldwide, will pay tribute to statisticians’ outstanding work in producing and disseminating data needed for responding to everyday challenges and for measuring progress in people’s lives.

Crowning the international summit on the Millennium Development Goals, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Heads of State and Government, along with the private sector, foundations, international organizations, civil society and research organizations, kicked off a concerted worldwide effort to save the lives of more than 16 million women and children.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen were among hundreds of high officials from corporations, Governments and world organizations at the United Nations Leadership Forum who today stressed the critical role of the private sector in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

The Global Alliance for Information and Communications Technology and Development (GAID) held a high-level breakfast meeting in New York to launch a set of online tools aimed at providing users around the world with the resources and means to accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals at the national level by the target year 2015. The “MDGs eNabler” project is spearheaded by GAID, with support from Governments, private corporations, academia and the civil society.

Government leaders and Chief Executive Officers from technology corporations from all continents, and senior United Nations officials will start the day right tomorrow, 21 September, with a high-level meeting at the Millennium Hotel and the launch of an online set of tools to help achieve world anti-poverty goals.

Global momentum is growing in the fight to save the lives of 10 million women and children every year by 2015, in an effort spearheaded by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.