It is the 7th anniversary of the pledge by African Union member states to allocate 15% of national budgets to health. In a statement to mark the anniversary, Archbishop Tutu stated:
The dramatic surge in food prices has plunged millions of poor people and many net food importing poor countries into a food crisis. Consequently, it has also put at risk their chances of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Whilst the focus has been on the impact on the MDG1 of reducing poverty and hunger, given the close inter-connectedness between all the 8 MDGs, the impact on these sections of the poor on health, education and livelihoods more broadly, cannot be underestimated.
Under the heading “Deepening local democratic governance to eradicate poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals," the delegates to the Forum discussed potential ways of strengthening the role of Local Authorities both in the North and the South in the achievement of the MDGs.
Salil Shetty, director of the UN Millennium Campaign, told the Financial Times that developing nations are estimated to be facing losses of at least $300bn to their economies up to 2010 as a result of the economic slowdown and are particularly vulnerable to global shocks.
ACCRA – On 18th July 2008, the UN Millennium Campaign launched a book written by Richard Kavuma, the 2007 CNN Multichoice Africa Journalist of the year.
Governor of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma, has been chosen to receive an international award by the United Nations Organisation in recognition of his “Directional Leadership and Good Governance” in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
A letter to the governor, dated May 21, 2008 and signed by Ms. Claire Jackson of the MDGs International Conference Committee, London, showed that Doma, along with co-recipients drawn from Nigeria and across Africa, will be formally presented with the international award today, July 25, in London.
Originally Published Jun 22, 2008 (IPS) – The director of the Millennium Campaign, Salil Shetty, is an angry man. Last year he was confronted with the climate change issue and now it is the global food crisis.
The Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke, met today with FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. They agreed to deepen cooperation between FIFA and the UN to further advocate for the role of sports as a effective tool for development and peace, in the lead up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ and the 2015 deadline for the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health has called on G8 leaders to fulfil their previous commitments to global health and commit to new, long-term financing for essential interventions that could avert the deaths of over 6 million mothers, newborns and children every year.
CAPE TOWN – Leading global health experts, policy-makers and parliamentarians convened in Cape Town last week to address the urgent need for accelerated progress to reduce maternal, newborn and child deaths, if internationally-agreed targets are to be met.
