| VIDEO: BARACK OBAMA: U.N. MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS, MDGs @ U.N. (UNTV) |
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNewsNetwork - 23 September 2010 - UNTV: United Nations, New York – United States (US) President Barack Obama yesterday launched a new US global policy aimed at revamping his administration’s development strategy around the world; in his speech to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly during the summit of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Obama said that hundreds of millions of people around the world, “have been lifted from extreme poverty” in the last ten years, but progress has been uneven and for some of the goals set ten years ago, it “has not come nearly fast enough.”
The MDGs, eight internationally agreed targets that aim to reduce poverty, hunger, maternal and child deaths, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality and environmental degradation, were adopted in 2000 and are targeted to be achieved by 2015.
Obama said that with “just five years before our development targets come due, we must do better”, but insisted that “progress is possible.”
Announcing the new US global development policy, he said it was “the first of its kind by an American administration”, and “is rooted in America’s enduring commitment to the dignity and potential of every human being”.
He added that “it outlines our new approach and the new thinking that would guide our overall development efforts.”
The program he announced has four approaches, including changing the definition of development and how the ultimate goal of development is viewed. It also puts emphasis on economic growth and accountability.
Obama said that the US will “insist on more responsibility” and “mutual accountability” and promised top “work with congress to better match our investments with the priorities of our partner countries”.
He stressed that the US “will invest in programmes that work and end those that don’t” and said that the aim of the policy is “to be big hearted, but also hard headed in our approach to development.”
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