AMMAN (JT) -- His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday said that Jordan has integrated the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into its national strategy of structural reform, sustainable economic growth and sound development.
In a speech at the UN summit on the MDGs in New York, King Abdullah said that Jordan is working not only to accelerate the pace of development, but also to build a genuine partnership between the public and private sectors and take advantage of synergies in many fields.
"Today, due to the work of thousands of Jordanians, in schools, in healthcare, in communities across the country, we are in the process of achieving many of our millennium goals. Goal two, for example, has effectively been achieved: ensuring that all children enrol in primary school and stay in school, ending youth illiteracy, and giving our students the foundation they need to advance in life," the King highlighted.
During the summit, held September 20-22 under the title "We can End Poverty by 2015", King Abdullah underscored the Kingdom's commitment to working with the UN and the international community to meet the millennium goals, noting that "much can be achieved" in the five years that remain until 2015, the internationally agreed-on deadline for the MDGs.
The Monarch indicated that the MDGs speak to the most important truth of the 21st century: "That global security and prosperity are in danger while billions of people live in want, noting that the world has the resources to end this threat and lift lives everywhere, and that both developing countries and donor countries have vital responsibilities if we are to succeed."
The King added that every achievement to be realised in the millennium goals reinforces others.
"From better education and healthcare, to higher living standards; from empowered women and youth, to greater economic opportunity. By integrating this work into national and global strategies, we can maximise change," His Majesty said, stressing that it is impossible to consolidate these gains without ensuring the conditions that development depends on peace, partnership and global opportunity.
The Monarch underlined that "there are no one-size-fits-all, outside-in solutions" and every developing country needs to own its path to development, stressing that the developed countries have strong interests in supporting global development, and important tools to do so.
The absence of regional peace is an obstacle to the development process in the Middle East, the King pointed out.
"When warfare and violence divert resources from social needs and economic growth, economies and community life are undermined and poverty and frustration grow," he said, indicating that development programmes can help build a foundation for peace, but ultimately depend on peace to succeed in the long term.
"This is why friends of development must also be friends of peace."
The Monarch said that the Middle East has long been denied the peace "that could unleash its enormous potential for development", noting that the region depends on the international community to help reach a comprehensive peace, which he said can only be realised through the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state solution.
The summit aims to review what has been done towards achieving the eight MDGs, which all 192 UN member states and numerous international organisations agreed to achieve by the year 2015 at the UN Millennium Summit of 2000, and to come up with a vision to accelerate progress towards meeting them.
The goals include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, ensuring environmental sustainability, and combating child mortality as well as deadly diseases such as malaria and AIDS.
His Majesty, along with Her Majesty Queen Rania, began a visit to the US early this week, where the King will head the Jordanian delegation to the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, which started last week.
On the sidelines of the meetings, the Monarch will meet several heads of state and delegations taking part in the summit. These meetings will focus on bilateral relations and regional developments as well as issues of mutual concern.
© Jordan Times 2010
