UN agencies champion Millennium Development Goals

15 September 2008

BEIRUT: More than 20 United Nations agencies working in the Middle East met in Beirut over the weekend to coordinate their efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set for the Arab region. The Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM) meets to ensure that projects being carried out by individual agencies do not overlap and to agree common policies aimed at achieving the internationally agreed goals.

The Millennium Development Goals are a series of eight targets endorsed by all 191 UN member states. Set in 2000 to mark the new millennium, the ambitious goals include eradicating extreme poverty, ensuring education for all children, promoting gender equality, reducing infant mortality and ensuring environmental sustainability by 2015. The UN says that Lebanon is likely to meet some but not all of the goals.

The meeting was opened and hosted by the UN's deputy secretary general, former Tanzanian Foreign Minister Asha Rose Migaro. Visiting Lebanon for the first time, Migaro paid tribute to a " remarkable country."

Thanking the delegates for attending, she said cooperation between countries "is vital to the advancement of humanity," singling out Gulf Cooperation Countries for special praise for being on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

But she warned that war-torn countries such as Iraq, Palestine and Sudan were lagging "significantly behind" in the race to implement the targets.

"It is unlikely they will meet the majority of targets by 2015," she said. "This finding strongly supports the consensus underpinning the 2005 World Summit - there can be no peace without development, and no development without peace."

Dealing with climate change and food security was top of the agenda at the meeting. Working to secure water resources also featured in the talks, with Migaro noting that "this region accounts for eight out of the 10 most water scarce states in the world."

She emphasised that UN chief Ban Ki Moon had made achieving the MDGs the "priority of his tenure." But she warned that the only way to successfully implement the targets was through cooperation. "This commitment is required of everyone without exception - governments, the private sector and civil society alike," she said.

Badr Omar al-Dafa, undersecretary general of the UN, said the meeting represented an "important step forward toward enhancing synergy," between individual UN agencies.

"New avenues for regional cooperation must be constantly and extensively sought and strategic partnerships within the region must be substantially increased in order to have tangible progress on the development agenda," he told delegates at the meeting.

On Sunday a guide on gender and the MDGs was launched at the meeting to help implement the equality of women in the region by the 2015 deadline. A 2002 report issued by the UN Development Program identified gender inequality "as one of three main 'deficits' in the Arab region."

But Mirago said the Arab world was working together with increasing coherence. "The Arab countries - and people - are doing more and more to contribute to one another's development," she said.

She ended her address with a call for cooperation in the Arab world. "The challenges before us require our persistent collective thinking," she said.

During her stay in Lebanon, Migaro also met with President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Speaker Nabih Berri.