Lip service to ending poverty?
At a high-level UN summit, world leaders promise to tackle global hunger, disease and destitution.
World leaders met at a high-level UN summit in New York to discuss plans to deal with global poverty, hunger and disease – but will it amount to anything more than just talk?
At a summit on the Millennium Development Goals they adopted a declaration promising “intensified efforts by the 192 UN member states to achieve the eight goals by 2015”.
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Those objectives, in addition to eradicating extreme destitution and hunger, are also aimed at empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and fighting diseases such as HIV/Aids.
But critics say world leaders set unrealistic targets and their approach lacked “a concrete plan on how to achieve each goal”.
On Wednesday’s show, we will be discussing these issues with John McArthur, the chief-executive officer of Millennium Promise, a non-profit organisation dedicated to ending extreme poverty. We will also speak with Anne-Marie Slaughter, the US state department’s director of policy planning, who also advises Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state.
This episode of Riz Khan aired from Wednesday, September 29, 2010.