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Secretary-General presses for bold measures to meet development goals

Secretary-General presses for bold measures to meet development goals

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged ministers from around the world to “act boldly” to meet the social and economic targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their deadline of 2015.

“The agreed deadline of 2015 is fast approaching. We must live up to the promises we made at the turn of the millennium,” he said in a video message to an MDG meeting in Tokyo.

“We do not have a moment to lose. We need to make greater strides towards balanced and sustainable development. To do this we need to act boldly and urgently by investing the resources we need to protect the gains we have made so far.”

The UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are hosting the two-day, ministerial-level meeting in Tokyo.

Participants include ministers, civil society representatives and development partner agencies, meeting to discuss initiatives to promote effective and practical measures to accelerate progress on the Goals between now and 2015, UNDP said.

Among the UN participants are UNDP Administrator Helen Clark and UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

The MDGs, agreed upon in a General Assembly summit in 2000, set specific targets on poverty alleviation, education, gender equality, child and maternal health, environmental stability, HIV/AIDS reduction, and a “Global Partnership for Development.”