FINANCIAL CRISIS HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO ACHIEVE DEVELOPMENT GOALS, MIGIRO SAYS

The current financial turmoil that has swept the world provides an impetus to deliver on aid commitments and reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the eight internationally-agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has said.

"One might say that aid is a luxury in a time of economic turmoil," she said yesterday at the Montreal Millennium Summit. "But our reaction to the crisis shows just how wrong-headed such thinking would be."

Ms. Migiro stressed in her address that the current crisis reveals that assistance is more crucial than ever, with aid as the only option left for many nations which have seen private financing disappear.

"If we fail to meet our aid commitments, we miss a chance to speed our own economic recovery," she said. "Fiscal stimulus has the biggest impact when it is directed to poor people."

With the midpoint to the MDG deadline having been reached, the Deputy Secretary-General said that even though many challenges remain, there is reason for hope, given the progress that has been made on many fronts, such as education, HIV/AIDS and gender equality.

She pointed out that Rwanda, which is still recovering from the devastating 1994 massacre of over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutus, is the country with the highest percentage of women in its parliament.

"We must never underestimate the human capacity for change," Ms. Migiro emphasized.

But progress has been too slow in other areas, such as improving maternal health and protecting the environment, she said.

The Deputy Secretary-General said that many developing countries have made great strides, achieving robust growth and even financing their own development, and she urged them to stand by their promises of improving governance and economic systems.

For their part, "donors could do more," she said. Even though "money can't buy development," she underscored that it is impossible to reach development targets with more resources.

While in Montreal, Ms. Migiro also addressed an event on the theme, "Forging a Renewed Partnership for Development," and reiterated the need for global cooperation to meet the MDGs.

"The task of achieving the Goals is too great for any one of us to achieve alone," she said. "We must succeed together."
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STATES MUST TAKE ACTION TO ENSURE ELIMINATION OF CLUSTER MUNITIONS, SAYS MIGIRO

STATES MUST TAKE ACTION TO ENSURE ELIMINATION OF CLUSTER MUNITIONS, SAYS MIGIRO
New York, Mar 18 2009 7:00PM

The pace of the ratification of a global pact outlawing cluster bombs must be accelerated to relegate the deadly weapons "to the pages of history," Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said today.

Addressing an event at UN Headquarters in New York to encourage countries to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, she said the treaty will help to address the humanitarian, socio-economic and environmental damaged caused by the devices.

"We must step up our efforts so women, men and children can walk free of the terrible injuries these munitions inflict," Ms. Migiro said.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) signed onto the Convention today, joining 95 other nations, while Laos ratified the pact, bringing the total number of ratifications to five.

Thirty ratifications are required for the Convention – which opened for signature in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, last December – to enter into force.

The pact is the "first instrument of international humanitarian law to address, in a clear and straightforward manner, the needs and rights of victims of a specific weapon," the Deputy Secretary-General said, adding that it also emphasizes the key role of partnerships between the UN system and other organizations.

The UN Mine Action Team will endeavour this year to help remove and destroy cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war, assisting victims in countries such as Cambodia, Chad, Laos and Zambia.

"We need to remove the need for such action," Ms. Migiro stated. "We need to consign cluster munitions to the pages of history."
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