Anders Bekeken

UN Millennium Development Goals Summit New York: We Can End Poverty in 2015

With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September to accelerate progress towards the MDGs.

Coming amid mixed progress and new crises that threaten the global effort to halve extreme poverty, “the summit will be a crucially important opportunity to redouble our efforts to meet the Goals,” he said, referring to the targets adopted at the UN Millennium Summit of 2000, aimed at slashing poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other ills by a 2015 deadline.

“Our world possesses the knowledge and the resources to achieve the MDGs” the Secretary-General stated in his report (PDF) in preparation for the September summit. “Our challenge today is to agree on an action agenda to achieve the MDGs.”

“We must not fail the billions who look to the international community to fulfil the promise of the Millennium Declaration for a better world. Let us meet in September to keep the promise.” UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon

7 Reacties

1. Erik van Erne zegt:

   9 september 2010 om 20:51 | Permalink

   President Clinton takes your questions on YouTube

   William Jefferson Clinton has worn many hats over the years. He served two terms as the 42nd President of the United States. He founded the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative to tackle problems like global health, poverty, education and climate change. He’s spent much of this year leading the recovery effort in Haiti through the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. And starting now, he’s taking your questions in our latest YouTube interview. Source: Google Blog

2. Erik van Erne zegt:

   21 september 2010 om 15:57 | Permalink

   UNEP Report : Green Economy can Reduce Poverty and Help Meet Millennium Development Goals

   Investing in clean energy, sustainable transport, forests and environmentally-friendly agriculture is essential, if internationally-agreed goals to reduce poverty are to be achieved. This is among the central conclusions of A Brief for Policymakers on the Green Economy and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), launched today as heads of state and ministers meet at the UN Headquarters to review progress to date - five years before the MDG deadline of 2015.

   Environmental degradation is making it more difficult for governments to achieve Millennium Development Goals such as improving maternal health, providing safe drinking water and combating hunger and disease. Conversely some countries and communities are finding that environmental improvements, catalyzed by deliberate policy choices; smart investments and often private sector partnerships can be a big part of the solution, the new study claims.

   Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said: “There is rapidly growing evidence that accelerating a transition to a low carbon, resource efficient, employment-generating Green Economy may not only be the key to meeting sustainability challenges of the 21st century, but also provide a considerable contribution to meeting other MDGs.

   The report - compiled by UNEP’s Green Economy team - cites numerous cases where green strategies are paying multiple dividends in respect to the eight MDGs. Policies and investments in Costa Rica have triggered an expansion of protected areas and national parks, now covering over 25 per cent of the country’s total land area. Since this strategy was adopted there has been a boom in eco-tourism attracting over one million visitors a year and generating USD $5 million annually in entrance fees alone. Studies indicate that communities living in or near national parks have higher wages, employment rates and lower rates of poverty. Source: UNEP

3. Erik van Erne zegt:

   22 september 2010 om 21:54 | Permalink

   Stand Up Against Poverty 2010

4. Erik van Erne zegt:

   23 september 2010 om 07:28 | Permalink

   United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals: The outcome document of the three-day Summit

   (MDGs) concluded today with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date and the announcement of major new commitments for women’s and children’s health and other initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease.

   The outcome document of the three-day Summit – Keeping the Promise: United to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals – reaffirms world leaders’ commitment to the MDGs and sets out a concrete action agenda for achieving the Goals by 2015. Based on examples of success and lessons learned over the last ten years, the document spells out specific steps to be taken by all stakeholders to accelerate progress on each of the eight Goals. It also affirms that, despite setbacks due to the economic and financial crises, remarkable progress has been made on fighting poverty, increasing school enrolment and improving health in many countries, and the Goals remain achievable. In a major push to accelerate progress on women’s and children’s health, a number of Heads of State and Government from developed and developing countries, along with the private sector, foundations, international organizations, civil society and research organizations, pledged over $40 billion in resources over the next five years. The Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health – a concerted worldwide effort initiated by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – has the potential of saving the lives of more than 16 million women and children, preventing 33 million unwanted pregnancies, protecting 120 million children from pneumonia and 88 million children from stunting due to malnutrition, advancing the control of deadly diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, and ensuring access for women and children to quality health facilities and skilled health workers. “We know what works to save women’s and children’s lives, and we know that women and children are critical to all of the MDGs,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. “Today we are witnessing the kind of leadership we have long needed.” In addition, a number of other significant commitments on each of the eight Goals were made by Governments, international organizations and partners as well as by business representatives at the Private Sector Forum organized by the UN Global Compact. Below is a selection, based on information available as of mid-afternoon today:

   Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
   • The World Bank will increase its support to agriculture to between $6 billion and $8 billion a year over the next three years, up from $4.1 billion annually before 2008, under its Agriculture Action Plan to help boost incomes, employment and food security in many low-income areas.
   • The Republic of Korea pledged $100 million to support food security and agriculture in developing countries.
   • Chile announced an Ethical Family Income initiative, to be launched in 2011, to supplement the income of the poorest families and those in the vulnerable middle class.
   • Monster.com committed to expand access to job opportunities for rural youth in India by promoting access to Rozgarduniya.com, an Internet job portal, in 40,000 villages across nine states in India.

   Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
   • The World Bank will increase its zero-interest and grant investment in basic education by an additional $750 million, with a focus on the countries that are not on track to reach the education MDGs by 2015, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
   • Dell committed to give $10 million towards education technology initiatives this year.

   Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
   • The Earth Institute, Ericsson and Millennium Promise launched Connect To Learn, a non-profit global education initiative to improve the access to and quality of secondary education for children around the world — especially girls. Connect To Learn provides three-year scholarships to attend secondary school and
   covers tuition, books, uniforms as well as access to broadband technology. The first 100 scholarships will be provided in Millennium Villages in Ghana and Tanzania within the next 100 days.
   • UPS International pledged $2 million to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to empower women through leadership and environmental sustainability programmes in 145 countries.
   • ExxonMobil committed to $1 million in a partnership with Ashoka’s Changemakers, the International Council for Research on Women and Thunderbird Emerging Markets Laboratory to support technologies that help women increase their productivity and participate more effectively in the economy. The programme is
   expected to directly benefit more than 13,500 people, with indirect benefits reaching more than 475,000 in the next two years.

   Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality and Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health
   • See the detailed list of commitments for the $40 billion in resources pledged for the Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health posted on http://www.un.org/sg/globalstrategy.
   • Canada reaffirmed its commitment to mobilize more than $10 billion from G8 and non-G8 leaders, key donors and private foundations over the next five years through the Muskoka Initiative for maternal, newborn and child health adopted at the G8 Summit.
   • Trinidad and Tobago announced the launch of a Children’s Life Fund to provide emergency medical care and surgery for children for medical procedures that cannot be accessed in Trinidad and Tobago.
   • LifeSpring Hospitals committed to provide an estimated 82,000 Indian women and their families with access to quality healthcare. Over the next five years, LifeSpring will increase the number of hospitals serving mothers and children throughout India from 9 to 200, which will improve overall standards of care and
   reduce rates of maternal and childhood deaths.

   Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
   • France announced funding of $1.4 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for 2011-2013, an increase of 20 per cent. It is the first of a number of pledges expected ahead of the Global Fund’s replenishment meeting on 4-5 October. [Note: 46 per cent of this pledge – the portion directly attributable to women’s and children’s health – is included in the $40 billion for the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.]
   • The United Kingdom announced a tripling in its financial contributions to fight malaria, increasing its funds for malaria from £150 million a year to £500 million by 2014.
   • The World Bank announced an increase in the scope of its results-based health programmes by more than $600 million until 2015 to scale up essential health and nutrition services and strengthen the underlying health systems in 35 countries, particularly in East Asia, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
   • Sumitomo Chemical committed to donate 400,000 of its anti-malarial Olyset Nets to every Millennium Village from 2010-2011. This follows its previous donation in 2006 of 330,000 nets.

   Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
   • The United States announced a commitment of $50.82 million over the next five years for a Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a public-private partnership led by the United Nations Foundation seeking to install 100 million clean-burning stoves in kitchens around the world.
   • Cameroon announced an Energy Sector Development Programme to double energy production by 2015 and triple it by 2020.
   • WaterHealth International committed to build 75 water purification plants in Bangladesh and expand its existing network of water purification plants to an additional 100 villages in India, providing access to clean water for 175,000 people in under-served communities in Bangladesh and India.
   • PepsiCo committed to ensure access to clean water for 3 million people around the world by 2015.

   Goal 8: Global Partnership for Development
   • The European Union offered funding amounting to €1 billion to the most committed and needy countries to make progress on the goals they are furthest from achieving.
   • Belgium pledged €400,000 for the Fourth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries, to take place in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2011.
   Source: UN

5. Erik van Erne zegt:

   23 september 2010 om 10:19 | Permalink

   President Barack Obama Announces New U.S. Development Policy

6. Erik van Erne zegt:

   23 september 2010 om 22:48 | Permalink

   President Obama Addresses the United Nations

7. Erik van Erne zegt:

   25 september 2010 om 08:53 | Permalink

   Heineken received 2010 World Business and Development (WBD) Award for its contribution to alleviating poverty

   During the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit hosted by the United Nations, Heineken received the 2010 World Business and Development (WBD) Award for its groundbreaking sustainable local supply chain initiative in Sierra Leone. Heineken is een van de slechts tien organisaties toe te kennen ontvangt de 2010 WBD. Heineken is one of only ten organisations to receive the 2010 WBD award. According to the members of the International Judging Panel, Heineken impressed by demonstrating a clear link between vital business practices and the contribution of the project towards the Millennium Development Goals.

   Heineken’s local sourcing project in Sierra Leone is part of the company’s Africa-wide strategy to procure at least 60% of its raw materials locally. Moreover, the Sierra Leone case has stimulated local entrepreneurship, created hundreds of new jobs for local population and increased smallholder farmers’ incomes significantly, thereby alleviating poverty.

   Sierra Leone Sorghum Project: Since 1988, Heineken has been developing its sorghum brewing technology and know-how. The award-winning project in Sierra Leone was established in 2005 with the goal to develop a sustainable local supply chain for Sierra Leone Breweries Ltd (SLBL). SLBL trained farmers in good agricultural practices, organised bulking and transport and tested new sorghum varieties for better processing quality and yield. The sustainable local supply chain was established with co-funding of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), an international institution that specialises in commodity development. The project has helped local farmers compete against imported grains. It has raised smallholder farmers’ incomes derived from sorghum, which has directly contributed to the alleviation of poverty for this critical group of farmers.

   Locally produced sorghum shortens the supply chain and diversification of raw material sourcing, both beneficial to local farmers and SLBL. Reducing grain imports leads to savings of scarce foreign currency for Sierra Leone. More importantly however, hundreds of local smallholder farmers in Sierra Leone now have a cash income. This all led to the creation of solid relationships and trust between all stakeholders in the new supply chain.

   The Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) is an intergovernmental Institution established within the framework of the United Nations that focuses on financing commodity development activities. Over the past 20 years, the Fund has leveraged its resources and has been able to provide assistance of over 500 million USD, almost double of its own contribution, to meet the critical development needs of its 106 member countries. Target beneficiaries of CFC financed projects are smallholder farmers, as well as small and medium sized enterprises involved in commodity production, processing and trade in developing and least developed countries. Due to its presence in The Netherlands, the Common Fund enjoys long standing relationships with a large number of Dutch private and public entities that engage in commodity production, trade and development. Source: Heineken

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