Development challenge

The focus of the world's attention is on the United Nations, as its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are up for mid-term review.

Nearly 140 heads of state or government, including Premier Wen Jiabao, arrived in New York yesterday for the high-level forum.

The world organization continues to serve as the venue where members of the global community can discuss the challenges they face and promote multilateral cooperation.

Development has not taken place on a uniform basis across the globe, and the overall picture is that progress is too slow due to lopsided results in poverty reduction. Africa is the area that has lags furthest behind.

World leaders meeting at the UN should attach importance to finding solutions to this issue. They need to recommit themselves to a global partnership to reduce poverty, illiteracy and other socioeconomic ills by 2015.

Part of the agenda at the UN meeting is to examine how developed countries have kept their commitments on aiding poorer countries.

Their support is important. It is time to galvanize the political will and mobilize necessary resources.

The UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2008 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon unveiled before the forum warned that poverty reduction goals agreed by world leaders eight years ago may not be met by the 2015 target date, particularly in Africa.

The report found that most of the extreme poverty reduction occurred in East Asia, especially China, while other regions had much smaller decreases in the poverty rate and only modest falls in the number of poor people. Sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet republics even saw the number of poor people increase between 1990 and 2005.

Against this backdrop, the first summit on the MDGs since 2000 is of great significance.

The UN is shifting its attention back to development, an issue of the first magnitude.

Ban said the meeting will strive to do "more for the poorest of the poor, the bottom billion trapped in poverty".

Premier Wen went to the UN with the country's anti-poverty targets within reach.

China is well on the way to meeting its target of halving the number of people who do not have access to safe drinking water by 2009, six years ahead of the deadline in the MDGs. We have pulled an estimated 400 million out of poverty.

However, there is no reason for complacency.

"We face nothing less than a development emergency," the UN chief said.

While the heads of state and government review the MDGs, they need to identify the gaps and map out steps to ensure the targets are met by 2015.

(China Daily 09/24/2008 page8)