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Message of the UN
Secretary General
UNITED NATIONS
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
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MESSAGE ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY
FOR THE ERADICATION OF POVERTY
17 October 2004
 Next September, world leaders
will gather at UN Headquarters for a high-level event to review
progress in implementing the Millennium Declaration they adopted
in 2000. But even now, well before that event, we already know
that a major breakthrough will be needed if the eight Millennium
Development Goals derived from the Declaration are to be met by
the target year of 2015.
There have been some notable
advances and cause for hope. The goals have transformed the
practice of development cooperation. The broad consensus around a
set of clear, measurable and time-bound goals has generated
unprecedented, coordinated action, not only within the United
Nations system, including the Bretton Woods institutions, but also
within the wider donor community and, most importantly, within
developing countries themselves.
In terms of actual progress
towards the goals, the data available so far suggest that
developing countries fall into three broad groups. The first,
comprising most of Asia and Northern Africa, is largely on track
to meet the target of halving extreme poverty and to achieve many
of the social targets. The second, mainly in West Asia and Latin
America and the Caribbean, has been making good progress towards
some individual goals, such as achieving universal primary
education, but has been less successful in reducing poverty. The
third group, largely comprising countries in sub-Saharan Africa
but also least developed countries in other regions, are far from
making adequate progress on most of the goals.
Intent as we are on drawing up a
solid statistical picture of our gains and shortfalls, let us also
remember that our concern is not numbers but individuals: young
people at work and out of school, children orphaned by AIDS and
other preventable diseases, mothers who die in childbirth,
communities affected by environmental degradation. It is well
within our power to overcome these and other terrible
manifestations of poverty and underdevelopment.
Ten years from the target date,
the goals remain feasible and affordable. But we need a quantum
leap in aid, debt relief and trade concessions on the part of
developed countries as expressed in goal number eight. And we need
similarly dramatic changes on the part of developing countries to
retool their development programmes. On this International Day for
the Eradication of Poverty, I urge all countries to uphold their
responsibilities. And I urge the world’s leaders to make next
year’s high-level event not just a simple stock-taking exercise,
but an occasion on which we inject new political energy into an
effort that is crucial for the world’s future security and
well-being.
Source: http://www.un.org
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