|
MDGs must be at the forefront on international agenda -
Leaders
From: Kwaku Osei Bonsu, GNA Special
Correspondent, London
London, April 5, Ghanadot/GNA - Leaders who gathered for a
progressive governance roundtable in Watford, London on
Saturday have called for immediate global action to put the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the forefront of
international agenda.
They maintained that it was only by recognizing that this
was truly an emergency that concerted global action could be
brought about.
The MDGs, which range from halving extreme poverty, spread
of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all
by the target date of 2015, form a blueprint agreed to by
all countries and development institutions.
The about 20 leaders, in a communiqué, noted with concern
that despite pledges to spare no effort at achieving these
goals and the unprecedented global wealth, global
inequalities had become more acute with some 2.5 billion
people still living on less than two dollars a day, while
many countries were significantly behind the goals for 2015
in health and child education.
Ghana’s President John Agyekum Kufuor, Italian Prime
Minister Romano Prodi, Mr Kevin Ruud, Prime Minister of
Australia, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Prime
Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, Chilean President
Bachelet Michelle, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of
Liberia and Mr Robert Fico of Slovakia, were among those who
attended the summit hosted by British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown.
Also present were former US President Bill Clinton,
representatives of international organisations including
United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund,
African Development Bank, European Union and World Trade
Organisation.
Issues discussed included trade, poverty and development,
reform of international institutions and climate change.
United by a common goal of promoting a more inclusive
globalisation that would engender prosperity for both
developed and developing nations, they vowed to work
together to help the world get back on track to meet the
MDGs.
They further highlighted the need for an open global trading
environment and vowed to push for a WTO Ministerial meeting
in May to agree on modalities for both agriculture and
non-agriculture market access and lay the ground for a full
deal for the successful conclusion of the Doha Development
Agenda by the end of the year.
Any deal, they insisted, must include a substantial package
of support for the poorest countries including aid for
trade, more simplified rules of origin, special and
differential treatment and action on specific commodities.
Beyond this, there was also the need to think more radically
as to how better to integrate into global trading system
those countries that global "trade currently passes by."
They said it was on the basis of this that support should be
given to the African Union's effort to establish African
Common Market to boost intra-African trade and to help bring
geographically isolated landlocked states more fully into
the global trading network.
President Kufuor, addressing the opening session, noted that
"the global village' was now a reality and for that matter
it was important that values and standards should be made
the same for all.
The progressive alliance or governance should therefore
encompass all known blocs, bringing on board countries with
much financial muscle like India, China, Russia and the
Middle-East nations.
Mr Brown said "we have to reshape global rules and global
institutions to meet the challenges of this era."
Institutions such as the World Bank and UN, he said, needed
to be reformed to tackle the double threat of economic
turmoil and climate change.
The Progressive Movement was initiated by President Clinton
in 1999 when he hosted and led a roundtable discussion in
Washington with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German
Chancellor Schroder, Dutch Prime Minister Win Kok and
Italian Prime Minister Massimo D' Aleme.
GNA
|
