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	New commitments unveiled at UN anti-poverty event by UN News & agencies   25 September 2008   Governments, foundations, and civil society groups have rallied around the call to action to cut poverty, hunger, disease by 2015, by announcing an estimated $16 billion in new commitments to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), at a high-level event at United Nations Headquarters.   “Today we brought together a broad coalition for change,” Mr. Ban told a news conference which he convened with UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto.   The Secretary-General, recently reported that soaring food and fuel prices and the global economic downturn are impeding advances in meeting the internationally agreed anti-poverty targets.   “Today, we have strengthened the global partnership for development,” Mr. Ban told participants at the event’s closing. “Now, I urge you to move with more speed and focus.” Mr. Ban has called for a summit on the MDGs in 2010 to further assess the delivery of the commitments undertaken.   Mr. D’Escoto said the new initiatives will inject new resources and hope into global efforts to achieve the Goals. “However, these good efforts, as important as they are, are not nearly enough” .   “The only way we can alleviate the suffering of the world’s poor is by creating a sound and just international economic system,” he stated, urging participants to work towards progress on the stalled Doha round of trade liberalization talks.   “We must go forward in partnership, for what we can achieve together is far greater than what any country or organization can accomplish alone,” he said.   However, some other senior officials have suggested that the ripple effects from the global credit crisis would eventually force governments to cut back the amount of money they actually donate.   The new pledges emerged from a special series of meetings attended by 96 heads of state or heads of government, all focused on a series of eight development goals. They included $4.5 billion for education, $3 billion to combat malaria and $1.75 billion in aid to prevent starvation in the Horn of Africa.   Norway pledged $1 billion over 10 years to reduce child and infant mortality, while Saudi Arabia committed $500 million toward enrolling an additional 24 million children in primary school by 2010. China offered some funding to support efforts to improve agricultural yields, health care and education.   Gordon Brown, the British prime minister who shared the podium with Mr. Ban at the news conference, said an economic crisis was precisely the wrong time to reduce development aid. Given the rising cost of food, fertilizer and fuel, for example, it was more important than ever to help African farmers improve their yields, he said.   The Group of 8 industrialized nations pledged in 2005 to donate more than $25 billion to Africa by 2010, but figures released by the United Nations this month showed that only $4 billion had actually been provided.   Among the donations announced, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $168.7 million for fighting malaria and joined with the Howard G. Buffett Foundation in a $76 million pledge to help poor farmers win competitive prices for their crops.   However, many anti-poverty activists were disappointed that the turmoil on Wall Street, had overshadowed the event. With many saying that amount pledged was grossly inadequate to address to current global food crisis threatening the health status of over 3 billion people who live on less than $2 a day.   Mr. Miguel D’Escoto said the progress made so far towards the Goals, with few exceptions, has been “limited,” with many countries having fallen behind and unlikely to achieve the Goals by the target date.   “Eight years after we adopted the Millennium Declaration, global inequality remains exactly the same or has even deteriorated since 2000, and the planet is at serious risk of not meeting the basic needs of the poorest of the poor,” he told the gathering.   The President stressed that a significant increase in international aid for the world’s poorest countries is essential for global development. While all donor countries have pledged to allocate 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to development cooperation, very few have lived up to this commitment, he stated, adding that “for every dollar that the developed countries spend on international assistance, they invest $10 in military budgets.   “It is calculated that the amount spent so far on the Iraq war could have paid for a full course of primary schooling for all of the world’s children and youth who are not in school. The price of a single missile is enough to build about 100 schools in any country in Africa, Asia or Latin America,” Mr. D’Escoto stated. Visit the related web page
	Devising practical solutions to global issues through commitments to action by Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) USA   Sept 2008   Building on former President Bill Clinton’s lifetime in public service, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) reflects his belief that governments need collaboration from the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and other global leaders to confront the world’s most pressing problems.   In 2005, President Clinton established CGI to turn ideas into action and to help move beyond the current state of globalization to a more integrated global community of shared benefits, responsibilities, and values.   By gathering world leaders from a variety of backgrounds, CGI creates an opportunity to channel the capacities of individuals and organizations to help realize change.   To fulfill the action-oriented mission of CGI, all members devise practical solutions to global issues through the development of specific and measurable Commitments to Action.   CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 100 current and former heads of state, 14 Nobel Peace Prize winners, hundreds of global CEOs, philanthropists, directors of the non-governmental organizations, and members of the media.   The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) facilitates cross-sector partnerships that, in turn, create and carry out projects of their own choosing. Members come from a wide variety of professions, cultural and religious backgrounds, and geographic regions. Heads of state, corporate and non-profit executives, academics, media representatives, religious leaders, university students, and global citizens join the community to develop solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Members make Commitments to Action – concrete, measurable steps towards improving lives worldwide.   Commitments to Action, aim to translate practical goals into meaningful and measurable results. CGI acts as a marketplace for a diverse community of changemakers to develop commitments that fit their core business and philanthropic goals. Visit the related web page
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