Sub-Saharan Africa must scale up efforts to reach Millennium Goals, says Migiro

While noting the gains achieved by sub-Saharan African countries in recent years, the Deputy Secretary-General today cited an urgent need to scale up efforts to meet the global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

Despite recent gains, including economic growth and stability, progress towards achieving the MDGs in sub-Saharan Africa remains “too slow” at the mid-point to 2015, Asha-Rose Migiro told members of the Secretary-General’s MDG Africa Initiative, which is designed to help mobilize international support for African States’ own efforts.

“We want to ensure that when we reach 2015, we can say that the UN system has done everything possible to motivate the international community to follow through on its commitments to support the MDGs in Africa,” Ms. Migiro stated.

Despite commitments made by the world’s leading industrialized countries to increase annual aid to Africa to $50 billion, assistance to Africa has not been scaled up, nor has it become more predictable, she noted, adding that “the follow-up on commitments made to support the MDGs in Africa remains fragmented and does not draw on the full expertise of the UN system and its partners.”

To remedy this, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon established the MDG Africa Steering Group and associated Working Group this past September. Together, they represent an “intensive effort to mobilize the full resources of the UN system and its partners to achieve the MDGs in Africa.”

Ms. Migiro added that the initiative will only be successful if it receives countries’ support and cooperation. “Its success also rests on the different governments’ willingness to sustain their national leadership and ownership in pursuing the MDGs,” she added.