The Secretary-General met today with the heads of Multilateral Development Banks: Mr. Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Mr. Luis Alberto Moreno, President, Inter American Development Bank, and Mr. Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank.

They spoke about the need for redoubling efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in the next thousand days and establishing a strong baseline for the post-2015 development agenda.

In that context, they discussed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Multilateral Development Banks and the United Nations on Enhanced Collaboration for Improving Statistics. The Secretary-General noted the vital tool of statistics for sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals, adding the need for timely, reliable and policy-relevant statistics to monitor progress. He added that the MoU reaffirms the UN’s institutional commitment and reenergizes our cooperation for the benefit of our Member States, especially in this crucial moment as we embark on the post-2015 development agenda.