Helping to achieve the MDGs; Second Committee: Economic and Financial.

• Position: 59th General Assembly - Millennium Development Goals

Natural disasters devastate many parts of the world, whether they were high-intensity hurricanes battering the Pacific islands or gigantic ocean waves killing thousands in its wake. From strengthening coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance, including special economic aid to individual countries or regions, to correcting global trade imbalances and promoting information technology for development, the Second Committee worked hard on these issues during the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly.

With 2005 marking the start of the ten-year countdown to 2015, the target date for the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that aim, among others, at halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education, the Committee worked towards aligning its objectives with the framework of the MDGs.

"We are in a transition", Committee Chairman Marco Balarezo of Peru told the UN Chronicle. "Before the sixtieth General Assembly, the Committee will review the Millennium Declaration and Goals during the 2005 summit". He said it was very important for the Second Committee to take decisions that would help achieve the MDGs. The Assembly recently approved a multistage work plan for 2005 that will culminate in a high-level review of worldwide progress towards attaining these Goals just ahead of the commemoration of its sixtieth anniversary in September.

In the tradition of consensus within the Committee, 40 resolutions were adopted without a vote, while 2 were put to a vote. By a draft on the external debt crisis and development, adopted without a vote, the Assembly stressed that debt relief could play a key role in liberating resources for poverty eradication, economic growth and sustainable development.

In the debate, Franklin Esipila of Kenya said that achieving official development assistance (ODA) at 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product was still below target in the developed world. ODA or foreign aid consists of loans, grants, technical assistance and other forms of cooperation extended by developed countries to developing ones. A significant proportion of ODA is aimed at promoting sustainable development in poorer countries, particularly through natural resource conservation, environmental protection and population programmes. Many delegations pointed out that writing off the escalating external debt burden of the world's poorest countries must become a top priority in helping them to restore economic growth, fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic and meet the MDGs.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Africa's economic growth levels must double to 7 per cent annually over the next decade in order to halve poverty by the year 2015. But continued debt servicing has made it impossible for Africa's heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) to increase savings and investments to promote economic growth. Eight years after launching the...