Brussels, 23 June: Launch of “MDG 2010: Keeping the promise” report by UN Secretary-General (media briefing)

When? 23 June 2010, 11.00a.m.
Where? International Press Centre, Club room, rue de la Loi/Wetstraat, 155
What? “MDG 2010: Keeping the promise”, UN Secretary-General’s report
Who?   • Antonio Vigilante – Director, UN Brussels.
          • Nicola Harrington-Buhay, UN/UNDP Deputy Director for Policy and Communications

The report will be presented in English. Other languages for interviews: French, Italian, Spanish.  

For more information: Jean-Luc Onckelinx, UNRIC +32 476 215 485; Alexandra Froger, UNRIC, + 32 2 788 84 61
 
Please confirm your participation to this event by sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 
 
 
Background:

This year’s report presents a timely and critical assessment of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals coming just months before world leaders meet at the United Nations in New York in September to recommit themselves to the promise they made a decade ago.  
 
Many countries are moving forward, including some of the poorest, demonstrating that setting bold, collective goals in the fight against poverty yields results. For every life that has benefited from the establishment of a quantitative, time-bound framework of accountability, the MDGs have made a real difference.
 
But unmet commitments, inadequate resources, lack of focus and accountability, and insufficient dedication to sustainable development have created shortfalls in many areas. Some of these shortfalls were aggravated by the global food and economic and financial crises.
 
The data and analysis provide clear evidence that targeted interventions, sustained by adequate funding and political commitment, have resulted in rapid progress in some areas. In others, the poorest groups, those without education or living in more remote areas, have been neglected and not provided the conditions to improve their lives.
 
Though progress has been made, it is uneven. And without a major push forward, many of the MDG targets are likely to be missed in most regions. Old and new challenges threaten to further slow progress in some areas or even undo successes achieved so far.
 
The critical question today is how to transform the pace of change from what we have seen over the last decade into dramatically faster progress amid a changing international environment with new and accentuated challenges in the form of managing climate change, dealing with food, energy and financial crises.
 
The presentation of the MDG report comes just days after the Council of the European Union adopted its views on the upcoming summit and a few weeks after the UN Brussels Office presented its annual report on the practical outcomes of the United Nations partnership with the European Union including in areas that have a key impact on the MDGs.