ANNAN STANDS FULLY BEHIND INCLUDING MDGS IN SEPTEMBER WORLD SUMMIT

New York, Aug 30 2005 2:00PM
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today reiterated his full support for including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in next month’s World Summit and said any effort to remove the eight targets that seek to cure of a host of global socio-economic ills by 2015 would hurt billions of people.

Spokesperson Marie Okabe was asked at the regular noon briefing if Mr. Annan would urge UN members to resist calls by the United States to take out references to the MDGs at the Summit convened at UN Headquarters in New York to discuss UN reform and the status of the MDGs, five years after they were adopted at the 2000 UN Summit.

“The Secretary-General and the United Nations stand fully behind the Millennium Development Goals, which are internationally accepted and which have the broad support of Member States and civil society,” Ms. Okabe replied.

“Any effort to eliminate the MDGs from the Summit outcome would be a step back to the global fight against poverty and for the billions living in poverty,” she added.

The MDGs seek, among other targets, to halve extreme poverty and hunger, sharply reduce maternal and infant mortality, and increase access for all to health care, education, water and sanitation, all by 2015.
2005-08-30 00:00:00.000