UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals starts today
From 20 to 22 September, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Commissioner Andris Piebalgs will participate in the UN High Level Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in New York. The meeting aims at reviewing progress made towards the development goals and adding additional momentum into the global fight against poverty. As the world leading donor, contributing with around 56% of global aid, the EU remains firmly committed to reaching the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and will call on all partners to increase their efforts and focus on results. To this end, the European Commission has proposed to devote up to €1 billion to reward performing partner countries and to support the most off-track ones in recognition of their engagement and needs.
10 years after the launch of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the UN High Level Plenary Meeting in New York has been convened in order to assess and accelerate progress on the global objective of halving poverty by 2015. So far, global efforts to reach the MDGs have produced mixed results. There has been success in some areas, such as poverty reduction and increasing enrolment in primary education. However, several goals are still off-track, such as the fight against hunger and child and maternal mortality. Geographically, Sub-Saharan countries are most lagging behind.
At the occasion of this Summit, in addition to the official programme, President Barroso and Commissioner Piebalgs will participate in many bilateral meetings and side events.
Commissioner Piebalgs will start his day with a breakfast-meeting with Members of European Parliament to discuss the Summit in more detail. He will later attend the opening session of the Summit. At 1 p.m. (local New York Time) he will co-chair an event sponsored by the European Commission on «Domestic Resource Mobilisation – achieving development and the MDGs in a sustainable way». Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank, will also co-chair this event.
Commissioner Piebalgs will finish his official programme of Monday with the participation in another side event on «Peacebuilding in the Central African Republic».
To find out more information on the Summit read the background MEMO
And the press release
