Stronger partnerships needed to achieve anti-poverty goals: UN reports

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UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 19 -- The international community should keep its commitments to strengthen partnership in support of closing gaps on anti-poverty targets, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to a UN report issued Thursday.

"New countries and other partners are stepping up. But all must deliver on commitments - on official development assistance, climate finance and domestic resource mobilization," UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon told journalists here at a press conference, where he launched a new report finding that despite significant successes, the global economic slowdown continues to hinder progress on the MDGs.

Titled with "The Global Partnership for Development: The Challenge We Face," the report said that the international community must recommit to increasing aid and reaching an agreement on development-oriented multilateral trade.

"While global economic trends are slowly improving, the crisis continues to take a toll," Ban said at the launch of the report, which comes amid the last 1,000 days of action towards the MDGs that are required to be accomplished by the year of 2015.

According to the annual report, several important targets have been met and are likely to be met by the target year of 2015 as a result of collective efforts by the international community, governments, private sector, civil society and other stakeholders.

The report called for bolder action in areas such as pollution, child and maternal health, HIV prevention and basic education.

"These are areas where both qualitatively and quantitatively more progress is needed," said Shamshad Akhtar, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, who spoke at the same press conference.

Among the recommendations she outlined from the report was a call for freer and fairer movement of goods, services and labor.

Prepared by the Task Force created in 2007 to track global commitments on aid, trade and debt, and to follow progress on access to essential medicines and technology, the report was issued ahead of the annual high-level General Assembly meetings next week when the MDGs are due to top the agenda.

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