AFRICA: UN highlights importance of MDGs

JOHANNESBURG, 28 Feb 2005 (PLUSNEWS) - The UN has warned that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by governments to curb poverty and promote gender equality by 2015 could fail unless developing countries make HIV/AIDS a priority.

A new report, 'Hope: Building Capacity: Least Developed Countries Meet the HIV/AIDS Challenge', said priorities must include the aggressive pursuit of policies that promote women's empowerment and the eradication of AIDS-related discrimination.

"It is imperative that we continue to stay focused on this challenge, as we aspire to achieve the MDGs and the goals of the Brussels Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries," the UN High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Anwarul Chowdhury, pointed out.

The MDGs include a 50 percent reduction in poverty and hunger; universal primary education; reducing child mortality by two-thirds; cutting back maternal mortality by three-quarters; the promotion of gender equality; and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

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