1-11-2010
By Kim Young-jin
The U.N. poverty reduction targets known as the Millennium Development Goals are achievable by their 2015 deadline, but donor countries including Korea must step up their aid and follow through on development pledges, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday in Seoul.
On the occasion of the G20 Seoul Summit, Ban joined South African President Jacob Zuma, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez and other high profile dignitaries for a National Assembly forum on revitalizing efforts to achieve the MDGs.
“Promises made must be promises kept,” Ban said, appealing for lawmakers to hold governments to their development policy statements. “We need your strong support. However good the policies President Lee and his cabinet ministers may have, without your support the MGDs cannot be achieved.”
Despite skepticism over the feasibility of the goals, which aim to halve poverty by 2015, Ban expressed confidence they can be met.
“I believe that with strong political leadership, good policies targeted toward the right people and areas, smart investment and adequate financial resources, I am sure this is doable; this is achievable,” he said.
The forum was organized as part of the G20 Seoul Summit that opened earlier in the day, which marks the first time development has appeared on the agenda of a G20 meeting.
President Lee Myung-bak is expected to announce a new G20 paradigm for economic development dubbed the “Seoul Consensus” at an official press conference today. Lee has said the plan will “teach the poor to catch fish instead of just giving them fish,” indicating an emphasis on transfer of development know-how.
President Zuma said the development push “could not have been more timely,” adding that the G20 should compliment and add value” to the drive to achieve the MGDs.
Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, also called for the nation to expand its aid to poor countries.
“This is the right time for Korea to lead by example by expanding its ODA (official development assistance),” he said, noting that the country, which recently joined the OECD, is still its lowest-contributing member. “This is what I ask of you as Secretary-General of the United Nations but also as a citizen of the Republic of Korea.”
The targets were established in 2000 during the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York, when all world leaders present agreed to achieve eight goals by 2015 including improving health care and education, combating AIDS and others diseases, and environmental sustainability.
Ten years later, the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day has fallen from 1.8 billion to 1.4 billion. New cases of HIV/AIDS declined from 3 million in 2001 to 2.7 in 2007. An MDG Review Summit in September to assess progress also adopted new measures to improve women’s and children’s health worldwide.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae also gave speeches. Jeffery Sachs, an economist and member of the U.N. advocacy group for the MDGs fielded questions from Korean lawmakers.
In all, some 100 dignitaries from here and abroad including ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan attended the event, co-hosted by Rep. Lee Ju-young of the ruling Grand National Party.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/11/113_76145.html
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