Millennium Development Goals quietly being dropped?

Social justice news
September 2005

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Millennium Development Goals quietly being dropped?
In September 2000, in a flood of millennial optimism, more than 150 heads of state at the UN’s Millennium Summit in New York set themselves eight goals to tackle poverty, including an overarching target to halve world poverty by 2015—the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Five years later, the international community prepares to meet in New York once again September 14 - 16. But this upcoming summit, initially conceived to review progress towards the MDGs, has been renamed, a host of new issues have been added to the agenda, and the conference risks straying from its original purpose, charge relief and development specialists at the United Kingdom's Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).

"A serious commitment to the MDGs will mean rich nations agreeing to increase aid, cancel debt, and rewrite unfair trade rules—the key aims of the Make Poverty History campaign," said CAFOD's George Gelber.

The agenda is based on an achievable set of proposals outlined in March by Secretary-general Kofi Annan in his report In Larger Freedom, which addresses three key freedoms:

Freedom from Want
The Millennium Development Goals are the most broadly-endorsed and globally accepted benchmarks of development progress in history. But, far from ‘sparing no effort’, the world has actually allowed progress to slip.

Sub-Saharan Africa, taken as a whole, will not meet a single target, according to the UN’s latest assessment.

The goal of free primary education, set for 2015, will not be met until 2130 at present rates of progress.

Five years into the new millennium, more than one billion people still live below the extreme poverty line of one dollar per day, and 20,000 die from poverty each day .

Developing countries have written their own national strategies to help meet the MDG targets, and also become more accountable and transparent. Rich nations have a responsibility to help them.

Freedom from Fear
UN members are being urged to sign a comprehensive convention against terrorism, and a Peacebuilding Commission is proposed to support countries in transition from armed conflict to lasting peace, and reduce risk of war.

CAFOD believes this is largely positive. However the current proposal does not mention the vital role of civil society groups in peacebuilding.

Freedom to live in dignity
A new fund has been set up to support countries attempting to strengthen democracy, and also under discussion will be a proposal to protect civilian populations from crimes against humanity, when their government is either unwilling or unable to do so. "Leaders should not allow the conference to shift towards a narrower focus dominated by terrorism and questions about the possible proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The most dangerous weapon of mass destruction in the past few decades has been the gun," said Gelber.

Other issues
Also under review is the current set-up of the UN, with proposals being put forward to make it more effective, transparent and accountable.

In particular, CAFOD supports the proposal to create a Human Rights Council that will replace the existing UN Commission on Human Rights in order to make the UN’s work to protect and promote human rights more timely and effective.

Urgent concerns
This should not be just a summit of compromises or ‘business as usual.’ Ambitious steps are needed now to ensure that world leaders address the most urgent concerns of the vast majority of people in the world: poverty, infectious disease, environmental degradation, insecurity in their own neighbourhoods, human rights violations and crime, as well as terrorism.

The topics of most concern to developed countries should not be allowed to dominate the agenda to the exclusion of all others.

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