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23 Sep 2010

ESCWA Executive Secretary: Global Economic Crisis Creates Many Hurdles for MDGs

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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit was held in New York from 20 to 22 September, and it was considered a landmark event since the MDGs seek to halve the number of poor people and to achieve significant targets in the areas of education, health, gender equality, sustainable development and the environment by 2015. ESCWA Executive Secretary Bader AlDafa participated on 22 September in the High-Level Roundtable 5, entitled “Addressing the special needs of the most vulnerable.” He said in his intervention that “in order to better identify the special needs of the most vulnerable, individuals, communities and societies must play an active role in the process.” Effective socioeconomic environment scans and early warning systems can be established on the ground to pick up trends and changes, as early as possible, he added. AlDafa remarked that where there is a process of demographic, political, social and economic transition, populations are greatly exposed to vulnerability in securing their basic human needs. “These transitional dynamics have destabilizing repercussions on institutional development efforts and the international community can help ease the pain of transition,” he stated. The Executive Secretary also noted that “as for the developmental potential of humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and peace-building efforts, national ownership should be a primary concern of such efforts.” He explained that UN regional commissions, including ESCWA, have a comparative advantage in this area. “As partners, they can ensure ownership by the local communities and therefore increase the development potential of all humanitarian action taken,” he said. “The present global economic crisis in itself is a challenge to achieving the MDGs by 2015,” AlDafa pointed out. He added that a regional MDG coordination mechanism joining ESCWA and the League of Arab States can help monitor achievements and setbacks and identify actions needed to accelerate progress.
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