Currently underway in New York City, the UN is holding a summit to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals, and to plot a path to achieve these goals by 2015.
Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed by the international community in 2000 – the first being to half the number of people living on less than a dollar a day by 2015. Sadly, all the eight MDGs are off-track, and those on maternal and child health and hunger are particularly wide of the mark.
We’ve already looked at what Oxfam would like to be achieved at this summit, as well as what you can do to put pressure on Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.
Here’s a few different ways that you can stay updated with what’s happening at the summit, and what outcomes we are likely to see:
Oxfam, The ONE Campaign, and WaterAid have funded VOICE Fellowships for 10 bloggers from around the world. You can follow them at the VOICE Hub. These partners are also hosting a daily ‘Breakfast With the World’, that will include discussions with policy experts at the DML and Skype interviews from various hotspots around the globe, each morning at 9:30am EST. You can stream these briefings at UN Media Week or on Mashable.
Oxfam has a team of policy experts at the UN Summit – monitoring and reporting on issues including donor aid, health, education, Africa’s position on MDGs, food and agriculture, impact of economic crisis, steps needed to get MDGs on track, President Obama’s MDGs position, and the impact of conflict and armed violence on the MDGs.
Make Poverty History have a delegation on the ground in New York City, and you can read the first report on the website here. The delegation is in New York to have a physical presence at the Summit, and will be reporting extensively on the happenings, including important announcements and international reaction. The Make Poverty History presence will also serve to remind the Australian Government about the importance of Australia’s role in fulfilling its international obligations on these critical issues.
Finally, U2 lead singer Bono has an article in the New York Times explaining the Millennium Development Goals, and what we can hope to achieve from the UN Summit. He puts it quite clearly when he says:
“The M.D.G.’s are possibly the most visionary deal that most people have never heard of.”
We’ll continue to update here as well – so stay tuned!
