MDGs to focus on mothers and children

The annual Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Report, released by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 23 June 2010 in New York, reveals that the world has made huge strides in reducing extreme poverty, tackling HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, and boosting access to clean drinking water, but is still not progressive enough in critical areas including improving maternal health and reducing child mortality. Read more

Holding the world accountable for development

Accountability for commitments is essential and a focus on implementing promises is urgently needed if acceleration of progress is to happen.  The Development Cooperation Forum (DCF), a universal and respected forum, encourages participatory multi-stakeholder dialogue on major development cooperation issues. With a particular focus on the MDGs, this year’s forum aimed to also contribute to the forthcoming MDG Summit. Read more

Former Swiss leader elected as next President of the General Assembly

On 11 June, the General Assembly elected, by acclamation, H.E. Mr. Joseph Deiss of Switzerland as President of the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly. A former leader of Switzerland who was instrumental in his country joining the United Nations eight years ago calls on Member States to return to the goals set out in the UN Charter and guide their work by the principles of peace, friendship and cooperation. Read more

Technical reports

World Economic and Social Survey 2010

The report launched on 29 June notes that getting ‘back on track’ will require significant reforms in global economic governance and new thinking to put the world on a more sustainable path of development. Overcoming the serious weaknesses exposed by the global economic crisis will not be easy and will require a major overhaul of the machinery for international finance, aid and trade. This year’s report looks at the prospects for post-crisis global development and concludes that a major rebalancing of the global economy is needed to make it sustainable. Read more

The following staff members retired in June:

Yoshinobu Yonekawa, Programme Officer, Division for Public Administration and Development Management

Diana Lin, Administrative Assistant, Division for Public Administration and Development Management

Atsede Mengesha, Editorial Assistant, Division for Social Policy and Development

Comings

The following staff members were promoted in June:

Brenda Olivas, Editorial Assistant, Population Division

Charmaine Williams-Carter, Administrative Assistant, Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination