Ban urges world leaders to cut poverty

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has opened the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) summit urging the end of poverty and disease in five years.

Ban urged world leaders, who have gathered in New York for the three-day meeting, to make smart investments in infrastructures, small farming, social services and poverty programs to meet the MDGs by 2015.

These include eradicating extreme poverty, increasing gender equality, fighting HIV AIDS, strengthening healthcare for women and insuring universal primary education.

These ambitious goals were set out in 2000. However, ten years later the United Nations seems to be struggling to meet the MDGs 2015 deadline.

“We are asking all of you today to stay true to our identity as an international community,” Ban told some 140 heads of states.

According to UN data, each day 30,000 children die from a combination of disease-infested water and malnutrition in Africa.

Official reports also show that about 20 percent of Africa’s children die before the age of five.

Addressing the summit, the UN chief also expressed optimism that despite the global economic downturn, targets to reduce poverty could still be met.

This is while the UN is currently $20 billion short of a 2010 commitment its member nations made towards achieving the goals by 2015.

International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn also commented on the global downturn, saying that the financial crisis along with the food and fuel crisis have greatly hindered global development.

He then went on to urge all countries to get their economies back on track to speed up progress to ensure greater success towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

“We must redouble our efforts in the face of this immense human suffering. We must strive for a speedy return to the pre-crisis path,” Strauss-Kahn told world leaders.