By Prensa Latina
United Nations : The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are of fundamental importance for the current global association for development, reported the president of the UN General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim.
During the inaugural session of a debate entitled “Recognizing Achievements,” it is important to confront challenges and retake the road to achieve the Goals by 2015, Kerim said.
He added that by achieving these goals to reduce hunger and poverty, confront disease and other evils about 500 million persons will be lifted from impoverishment and 300 million will be adequately fed, as well as 30 million children will be affected.
However the President of the General Assembly emphasized that between the adoption of the MDGs and their follow-up “it is already clear that our course is very slow.”
At the current rate none of the challenges will be achieved in sub Saharan Africa, emphasized Kerim, affirming that we are confronting a crisis, a development emergency.
The former chancellor of Macedonia said that emphasis should be placed on eliminating poverty and hunger, education and public health, and keep in mind that these facts and figures represent millions of frustrated persons with hopes, goals and promises of a better life.
In the case of sub Saharan Africa, he noted, a third of men, women and children are undernourished and if this tendency continues, 360 million persons will be kept in poverty by 2015.
Despite advances in the reduction of infant mortality, the General Assembly president pointed out that 10 million children still die before reaching five years of age, half in sub Saharan Africa.
Referring to education he admitted progress with 41 million children in classrooms although there are still problems of quality in education and insufficient teachers.
According to Kerim, all attention should focus on the creation of a more coherent development agenda based on the connection between funding and developing, MDGs and challenges of global warming.