Voices of world leaders.

• Author: Bolton, Sally

Over the course of the three-day 2005 World Summit, each Member State made a statement in the high-level plenary of the General Assembly. Heads of State and Government took this opportunity to put forward their country's experience in working towards the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Many expressed their support for the reforms agreed upon at the Summit, as well as their frustrations at the lack of resolution on issues left out of the outcome document.

The majority of world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the MDGs while acknowledging that much more concrete actions were needed to ensure these goals are achieved by 2015. "Our approach to the challenge to commit and deploy the necessary resources for the realization of the Millennium Development Goals has been half-hearted, timid and tepid", South African President Thabo Mbeki told the Summit. Representatives of developing countries outlined the work that had been done on a national level to work towards the MDGs and emphasized the crucial importance of global partnerships and support from wealthy countries to achieve the goals. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said: "For a developing country like ours, we agree that the primary responsibility for socio-economic development in our country rest with us. Nevertheless, our efforts must be complemented by global support."

The responsibility of developed countries to implement the Monterrey Consensus and ensure they meet or surpass the target of providing 0.7 per cent of gross national product in official development assistance (ODA) was widely acknowledged. United States President George W. Bush spoke of the newly-established Millennium Challenge Account, which is "increasing United States aid for countries that govern justly, invest in their people and promote economic freedom". However, many leaders stressed that increased development assistance must be on fair and equitable terms. "Politically-driven hidden agendas and shifting ideologies to bring coercive influence on the recipients must end. They serve only to 'punish the poor'", said Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen of Cambodia.

In addition to ODA, there were also repeated calls for a successful outcome to the Doha round of the World Trade Organization's trade negotiations and the finalization of the Group of Eight agreement in Gleneagles, Scotland to cancel the debt of 18 heavily indebted poor countries, in order to make real progress on the MDGs.

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