Millennium Goals
UN indispensable in rallying world to meet MDGs deadline
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-23 16:17
 |
Large Medium Small |
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations was once again under the spotlight Wednesday when world leaders renewed their commitments at a high-level UN summit to reaching the global anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the 2015 deadline.
The fact that nearly 140 heads of state and government taking part in the three-day gathering unanimously made that pledge has demonstrated the UN's indispensable role in bolstering global development.
"There the United Nations stands, stands in front and in the center, working together with the member states," he said.
The MDGs, a set of eight goals ranging from halving poor population to increasing gender equality by 2015, were the UN's brainchild.
It was the UN that gathered world leaders in New York a decade ago to hammer out the MDGs, which represent a blueprint for human development, a symbol of human progress and a milestone for international cooperation.
It is fair to say that there would be no MDGs without the UN, and that all the progress achieved in reaching MDGs would be impossible without the world body.
"The MDGs were first put forward by the United Nations, which is the world's most authoritative and universal inter-governmental organization," Sha Zukang, the UN's under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
In fact, the United Nations has been indispensable in major global socioeconomic issues ever since its founding 65 years ago.
Starting in the 1960s, it designated each decade as A Decade for Development Strategy to the benefit of most developing countries. It also incorporated the concepts of "people first" and "sustainable development" into its strategies and guidelines.
As the world's leading coordinator for promoting socioeconomic development, the UN has been playing a unique role in rallying all member states to achieve the MDGs on time.
It established a monitoring and reporting system to track down the progress in reaching MDGs at global, regional and national levels.
It coordinates the compilation and analysis of various targets, examines statistical methods and gives support to national governments to collect, analyze and report data concerning the MDGs.
However, the UN is fully aware that the clock is ticking closer to the 2015 deadline for reaching the MDGs while the past decade has been a mixed story of success and challenges for meeting the MDGs targets.
Success has been uneven within countries, between countries and also between regions. At the same time, the triple problems -- food, fuel and financial crisis -- have slowed and even reversed progress toward the MDGs in many countries.
The sense of urgency is mirrored in the outcome document adopted by the latest UN high-level summit in New York and it was a timely action for the UN to once again rally the world behind the MDGs.
