Senior UN official in Eastern Europe to highlight poverty reduction programmes

The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is visiting Montenegro and Moldova to highlight the two countries’ poverty reduction and social development efforts ahead of the UN summit to review global progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In Montenegro, Helen Clark, the UNDP Administrator, will meet with President Filip Vujanovic and Prime Minister Milo Ðukanovic, and other senior officials to discuss the country’s implementation of the projects designed to spur achievement of the MDGs, the eight global benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty.

The goals and targets, which have a 2015 deadline, are designed to address the problems of income poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality and environmental degradation.

Ms. Clark will also travel to northern Montenegro to highlight the development of sustainable tourism in that region.

In Moldova, Ms. Clark will meet with the Speaker of the Parliament and Acting President Mihai Ghimpu, as well as Prime Minister Vladimir Filat and other senior officials. She will help launch Moldova’s new MDG campaign to accelerate progress towards the goals.

She will also participate in a post-disaster assessment of the needs of those affected by floods and visit the offices of the country’s electoral commission.

The high-level summit on the MDGs later this month will bring together nearly 150 world leaders at UN Headquarters in New York and is aimed at providing the political impetus needed to tackle the remaining gaps in efforts to facilitate achievement of the goals.