Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an intensified focus on priorities, political will and partnership to achieve the Millennium Development Goals this morning, as he launched a report that showed a mix of progress and obstacles in reaching the anti-poverty targets. “This report shows that economic uncertainty cannot be an excuse to slow down our development efforts. It is a reason to speed them up,” he said, introducing the major findings of the Millennium Development Goals Report 2010.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
Existing modern energy services failed to meet the needs of half the world’s population — some 3 billion people — hampering the ability of poor countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, but an innovative micro-hydropower project that supplied electricity to remote, rural communities in Nepal held lessons that could be applied and scaled up elsewhere, Olav Kjørven, Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said at Headquarters today.
Highlighting a number of events taking place this month that will feed into September’s summit on the Millennium Development Goals, top United Nations officials this afternoon stressed the importance of political will for reaching the anti-poverty targets by their 2015 deadline.
With the United Nations poised to host a summit on the Millennium Development Goals in September, Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, today urged world leaders to consider an “acceleration framework” based on real-life national successes, in order to bring the Goals to fruition by 2015.
Despite many successes over the past year in protecting children in situations of armed conflict, many challenges remained, senior United Nations officials in that field said at a Headquarters press conference today. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict said one of those challenges was gaining access to non-State actors with whom her Office could negotiate action plans for the release of children recruited as combatants by armed groups.
At a Headquarters press conference today, Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Solόn strongly objected to a negotiating text for a new climate deal given during working sessions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany, earlier this month. He noted that final texts produced by the Chair of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on long-cooperative action absolutely did not reflect the submissions of his country.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea again firmly rejected today charges that it was responsible for the 26 March sinking of the warship Cheonan, as Sin Son Ho, its Permanent Representative to the United Nations, warned that his country would respond militarily to any Security Council condemnation over the sinking of the Republic of Korea vessel, which Seoul blamed on Pyongyang.
The Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact Office said today that, while corporate responsibility continues to be high on the business agenda despite the worldwide economic downturn, many companies had nevertheless failed to implement key policies on human rights and anti-corruption.
Non-governmental organizations had been crucial partners in efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and while their voices were many and diverse, they carried a common message: the Goals must be understood in the context of the need for new development paths.
Street gangs showed surprising resilience to common law enforcement tactics, such as police sweeps, curfews, and longer prison sentences, according to the tenth annual "Small Arms Survey 2010: Gangs, Groups, and Guns", which was launched today at Headquarters. It also notes that, while such tactics were designed to disrupt gang structures, eliminate leadership and deter youths, in many cases, they failed in their short-term objectives or even increased insecurity.