At past UN Summits on development, Europe was a leader: in 2000 at the Millennium Summit; in the 2002 Fin for Dev Conference in Monterrey, at the 2005 Summit on progress on MDG’s…

The Commission’s first draft of April 21st for the European position for this September’s Summit on the MDGs followed these shining examples:

I feel very much at home here, and in tune with the purpose of your meeting.
I have been among the first women in several positions, which was not always easy, including certain minor inconveniences: when I became a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands in 1981, there was only one toilet – for the men – near the Plenary. When I became a member of the World Bank Board of Executive Directors in 1991, it was the same: One labeled “Gentlemen” in the antechamber of the Board Room – I had to walk a corridor to the “Women”…

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am honoured and privileged to join a distinguished group of Microfinance practitioners engaged in achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. I am pleased to participate in this session, which provides a broader context for the discussion about “The Millennium Development Goals and Microfinance” and will share my perspective on the role of Microfinance institutions in promoting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

I welcome very much the opportunity to address this audience. Decades of efforts to raise the political importance of development cooperation and to understand what our role as donors is, are at stake in the present economic crisis. I will start first with a few words on the Millennium Goals,particularly on actions needed on Goal 8 and how to convey these to the general public. Then I will address our challenges in this time of crisis, and will end with comments on Moyo’s “Dead Aid.”

I. The Millennium Development Goals.

In September 2000, 189 heads of state and government came together at the United Nations for the Millennium Summit. At the Summit leaders firmly committed to fight together against poverty and hunger, gender inequality, environmental degradation, and HIV/AIDS, while improving access to education, health care and clean water, all by 2015. These wide-ranging commitments gave birth to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Millennium Development Goals, HIV/AIDS and Germany

Q1: If we don’t achieve the MDG on HIV/AIDS, how is it going to affect other goals?

As you know the Millennium Development Goals are a package of eight Goals resulting from the commitments made by world leaders at the historic Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000.

Thank you for your invitation to speak today. I am always especially pleased to be talking to Parliamentarians, and this is not just because for many years I was one myself. It is also because I am firmly convinced of the power and importance of Parliamentarians and the difference that they can make.

EXCERPTS TAKEN FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED TO OVER 300 UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE STUDENTS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY PARTICIPATING IN THE 59TH ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF WORLD UNIVERSITY SERVICE OF CANADA. (WUSC)

I make many speeches to many types of audiences but you, Civil Society, are my absolute favorite.

It is Civil Society that was the prime mover behind the goals in the first place. By extracting promises from reluctant governments at the Great UN Summits of the 90s and it’s these promises that evolved into the Millennium Development Goals.

It is your passion, energy and your efforts to try and give a voice to the poor that make them heard at government levels.

To work towards the Millennium Development Goals is to work towards human rights. This might sound obvious, but for a long time it was not obvious, at least to rich countries. The world of human rights movements and the world of development workers have remained separate for too long. The international debate has been dominated for too long by the assumption that human rights are about political and civil rights while development cooperation is about economic growth, and more to the point per-capita economic growth, glossing over the issue of who benefits from it and who does not.