World Summit on Sustainable Development Department of Public Information - News and Media Services Division - New York
	Johannesburg, South Africa 26 August-4 September 2002	30 August 2002

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNDP, UN FOUNDATION   The United Nations Development Programme's role in meeting the goals set at the Millennium Summit in September 2000 and public support, both in the United States and internationally, for those goals were highlighted at a Summit press conference this morning by UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown and Tim Wirth, President of the UN Foundation. In adopting the goals, said Mr. Malloch Brown, world leaders had established quantifiable time-bound targets for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. In their pursuit, it was important to embrace global public opinion and hold governments accountable for achieving the targets. He hoped that new and additional targets -- on fisheries, water and sanitation -- would be added to the global agenda during the Johannesburg Summit. He said UNDP's activities in pursuit of the goals were at the centre of international efforts, including a monitoring system and an applied research exercise to stimulate policy debate. The Programme, which had been selected to coordinate United Nations activities on meeting the goals, was also in the process of organizing a major global campaign emphasizing debt relief and landmines, and was working with civil society partners to stimulate national efforts in holding governments accountable. The challenge for the global community was to mobilize financial support and political will, re-engage governments, reorient development priorities and policies, build capacity and reach out to partners in civil society and the private sector. Discussing the levels of public support in the United States for the Summit goals, Mr. Wirth said a recent national poll indicated "Americans by a clear margin favour the United States becoming more involved internationally." What that new information, Washington "should be less apprehensive" about supporting the important work the United Nations and its agencies were conducting throughout the developing world. Peace and security were among the priorities identified by the respondents, with terrorism and the situation in the Middle East high on the agenda, he continued. American voters defined the goals of providing safe drinking water, reversing HIV/AIDS infection rates and achieving universal primary education as the highest priorities for resource distribution. Topping the list of goals that received support from the American public was the issue of safe drinking water, which was identified as an absolute or high priority by some 75 per cent of respondents. As for the attainability of those goals, some 36 per cent believed that, in fact, progress could be made with safe drinking water, and about 30 per cent thought it was possible to reverse HIV/AIDS trends and achieve education goals. People were rather sceptical about the goal of cutting in half the number of poor people in the world -- only 8 per cent that goal was achievable by 2015. Mr. Malloch Brown added that the use of surveys as the basis for getting governmental support for the goals was not limited to the United States. Several days earlier, Gallup International had presented a global poll, which had already been completed in 31 countries and would be done in a total of 50 countries. That poll showed strong support for the Summit and, in particular, the goals. The world shared the view of the American public on the high priority of clean drinking water, but it also strongly supported the idea of governments setting targets and being held accountable for them. On some issues, the public opinion differed among the countries. For example, while European countries believed that it was possible to tackle the issues of environment and development simultaneously, developing countries were much more cautious in that respect, believing that development should be put first. That was part of the dispute in the ongoing intergovernmental process at the Summit. Responding to several questions regarding public opinion, both panellists stressed the importance of influencing decision-makers' opinions through lobbying. All interested groups should come together to increase support and budget for development assistance. For the next Presidential campaign in the United States, it was necessary to emphasize the balance between security and enlightened investment in assistance. That should become come part of the Presidential debate. The need to explain what taxpayers' dollars were buying was critical and one of the most attractive features of the goals was their transparency and accountability to investors. Thus, information was indispensable for public support. Asked about the possibility of meeting the goals at current levels of investment, Mr. Malloch Brown said that, while it was true that the Summit was meeting "under the shadow of promises not kept", the goals had public support behind them from the start. The challenge was to avoid failures in meeting future obligations. To achieve the goals, it was necessary to ensure accountability. Actually, what looked like the most impossible target -- the one to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 -- was broadly on track. While 1.2 billion people still lived on less that $1 a day, some 43 countries -- many of them in Asia -- with more than 60 per cent of the world's people, had already met or were on track to meet that goal.   Press Conferences Summit News