Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
UN Summit concludes with adoption of global action
plan
to achieve development goals by 2015
Secretary-General secures more than $40 billion for
women’s and children’s health
UNITED NATIONS, New York, 22 September — A United N
ations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) concluded today with the adoption of a globa
l action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goa
ls by their
2015 target date and the announcement of major new
commitments for women’s and children’s health and o
ther
initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease.
The outcome document of the three-day Summit –
Keeping the Promise: United to Achieve the Millenni
um
Development Goals
– reaffirms world leaders’ commitment to the MDGs
and sets out a concrete action agenda
for achieving the Goals by 2015. Based on examples
of success and lessons learned over the last ten ye
ars, the
document spells out specific steps to be taken by a
ll stakeholders to accelerate progress on each of t
he eight
Goals. It also affirms that, despite setbacks due t
o the economic and financial crises, remarkable pro
gress has
been made on fighting poverty, increasing school en
rolment and improving health in many countries, and
the
Goals remain achievable.
In a major push to accelerate progress on women’s a
nd children’s health, a number of Heads of State an
d
Government from developed and developing countries,
along with the private sector, foundations, intern
ational
organizations, civil society and research organizat
ions, pledged over $40 billion in resources over th
e next five
years. The Global Strategy for Women’s and Childre
n’s Health – a concerted worldwide effort initiated
by United
Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – has the pot
ential of saving the lives of more than 16 million
women
and children, preventing 33 million unwanted pregna
ncies, protecting 120 million children from pneumon
ia and 88
million children from stunting due to malnutrition,
advancing the control of deadly diseases such as m
alaria and
HIV/AIDS, and ensuring access for women and childre
n to quality health facilities and skilled health w
orkers.
“We know what works to save women’s and children’s
lives, and we know that women and children are crit
ical to
all of the MDGs,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sai
d. “Today we are witnessing the kind of leadership
we have
long needed.”
In addition, a number of other significant commitme
nts on each of the eight Goals were made by Governm
ents,
international organizations and partners as well as
by business representatives at the Private Sector
Forum
organized by the UN Global Compact. Highlights are
shown below.
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
•
The World Bank will increase its support to agricu
lture to between $6 billion and $8 billion a year o
ver the next
three years, up from $4.1 billion annually before 2
008, under its Agriculture Action Plan to help boos
t
incomes, employment and food security in many low-i
ncome areas.
•
The Republic of Korea pledged $100 million to supp
ort food security and agriculture in developing cou
ntries.
•
Chile announced an Ethical Family Income initiativ
e, to be launched in 2011, to supplement the income
of the
poorest families and those in the vulnerable middle
class.
•
Monster.com committed to expand access to job oppo
rtunities for rural youth in India by promoting acc
ess to
Rozgarduniya.com, an Internet job portal, in 40,000
villages across nine states in India.
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
•
Japan will provide $3.5 billion over five years fo
r education in developing countries, beginning in 2
011.
•
The World Bank will increase its zero-interest and
grant investment in basic education by an addition
al $750
million, with a focus on the countries that are not
on track to reach the education MDGs by 2015, espe
cially in
sub-Saharan Africa.
•
Trinidad and Tobago committed to provide laptop co
mputers to all secondary students within five years
.
•
Dell committed to give $10 million towards educati
on technology initiatives this year.
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
•
The Earth Institute, Ericsson and Millennium Promi
se launched
Connect To Learn
, a non-profit global education
initiative to improve the access to and quality of
secondary education for children around the world —
especially
girls.
Connect To Learn
provides three-year scholarships to attend seconda
ry school and covers tuition, books,
uniforms as well as access to broadband technology.
The first 100 scholarships will be provided in Mil
lennium
Villages in Ghana and Tanzania within the next 100
days.
•
UPS International pledged $2 million to the World
Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to empow
er women
through leadership and environmental sustainability
programmes in 145 countries.
•
ExxonMobil committed to $1 million in a partnershi
p with Ashoka’s Changemakers, the International Cou
ncil for
Research on Women and Thunderbird Emerging Markets
Laboratory to support technologies that help women
increase their productivity and participate more ef
fectively in the economy. The programme is expected
to directly
benefit more than 13,500 people, with indirect bene
fits reaching more than 475,000 in the next two yea
rs.
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality and Goal 5: Improve
Maternal Health
•
See the detailed list of commitments for the $40 bi
llion in resources pledged for the Secretary-Genera
l’s Global
Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health posted o
n www.un.org/sg/globalstrategy.
•
Canada reaffirmed its commitment to mobilize more
than $10 billion from G8 and non-G8 leaders, key do
nors and
private foundations over the next five years throug
h the Muskoka Initiative for maternal, newborn and
child health.
•
LifeSpring Hospitals committed to provide an estim
ated 82,000 Indian women and their families with ac
cess to quality
healthcare. Over the next five years, LifeSpring wi
ll increase the number of hospitals serving mothers
and children
throughout India from 9 to 200, which will improve
standards of care and reduce maternal and childhood
deaths.
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
•
France announced funding of $1.4 billion to the Gl
obal Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria f
or 2011-2013,
an increase of 20 per cent. It is the first of a n
umber of pledges expected ahead of the Global Fund’
s replenishment
meeting on 4-5 October.
[Note: 46 per cent of this pledge – the portion dir
ectly attributable to women’s and children’s
health – is included in the $40 billion for the Glo
bal Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.]
•
Japan announced a contribution of $800 million in
the coming years to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
TB and Malaria.
•
The United Kingdom announced a tripling in its fin
ancial contributions to fight malaria, increasing i
ts funds for
malaria from
£
150 million a year to
£
500 million by 2014.
•
China will, within the next three years, donate $1
4 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and
Malaria.
•
The World Bank announced an increase in the scope
of its results-based health programmes by more than
$600 million until 2015 to scale up essential healt
h and nutrition services and strengthen the underly
ing health
systems in 35 countries, particularly in East Asia,
South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
•
Sumitomo Chemical committed to donate 400,000 of i
ts anti-malarial Olyset Nets to every Millennium Vi
llage from
2010-2011. This follows its previous donation in 20
06 of 330,000 nets.
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
•
The United States announced a commitment of $50.82
million over the next five years for a Global Alli
ance for
Clean Cookstoves, a public-private partnership led
by the United Nations Foundation seeking to install
100 million
clean-burning stoves in kitchens around the world.
•
Cameroon’s Energy Sector Development Programme wil
l double energy production by 2015 and triple it by
2020.
•
The Asian Development Bank plans to double its fin
ancing for clean energy to $2 billion a year by 201
3.
•
WaterHealth International committed to build 75 wa
ter purification plants in Bangladesh and expand it
s existing
network of water purification plants to an addition
al 100 villages in India, providing access to clean
water for
175,000 people in under-served communities in Bangl
adesh and India.
•
PepsiCo committed to ensure access to clean water
for 3 million people around the world by 2015.
Goal 8: Global Partnership for Development
•
The European Union offered funding amounting to
€
1 billion to the most committed and needy countries
to make
progress on the goals they are furthest from achiev
ing.
•
Belgium pledged
€
400,000 for the UN Conference on Least Developed Co
untries, to take place in Turkey in 2011.
•
China committed to give zero-tariff treatment to m
ore products from Least Developed Countries and to
continue to
cancel debts.
