Thu, August 09, 2012
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Thursday announced the Sustainable Development Solutions Network to support the work of the post-2015 development planning in order to keep the momentum of spurring global development after 2015, the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which represent eight anti-poverty targets.
The new initiative includes the recently-launched High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said at a daily news briefing.
"This initiative will bring to the debate the voices of the academic and scientific community under the leadership of Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the special advisor on the Millennium Development Goals," Nesirky said.
On July 31, Ban announced the members of a High-level Panel to advise on the global development agenda beyond 2015, the target date for the MDGs.
The secretary-general has appointed three co-chairs: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom.
The Panel will hold its first meeting at the end of September in the margins of the annual high-level debate of the UN General Assembly. It is expected to submit a report to the Secretary- General in the first half of 2013.
The Panel is part of the secretary-general's post-2015 initiative mandated by the 2010 MDG Summit. UN member states have called for open, inclusive consultations involving civil society, the private sector, academia and research institutions from all regions, in addition to the UN system, to advance the development agenda beyond 2015.
The eight MDGs, which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015, form a blueprint agreed to by all UN member states and all the world's leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world's poorest.
