Doha - Participants at the Doha Review Conference for Development Finance called Tuesday for the international community to redouble its efforts to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs). "In a world that has witnessed fast technological advances, poverty, hunger and easily preventable diseases continue to threaten our future generations ... and we are far from our millennium (development) pledge to provide universal primary education for those who do survive," read part of the statement issued at the end of the four day conference.
The conference, which ended on Tuesday, was intended to review progress on a series of pledges made at the 2002 UN Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development, which made promises on debt relief and mobilizing financial resources for development.
The Doha leaders urged developed countries to increase official development aid to developing countries. They also pledged to eradicate poverty and achieve sustained economic growth and promote sustainable development.
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the Conference and Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in Germany, said that the conference scored important success, stressing that the world stands united in the face of the global financial crisis.
"Decisions taken here (in Doha) include a call for improving financial systems in the global market. Discussions will also continue to find a financial road map," she said in a press conference earlier on Tuesday.
She explained that discussions will continue at a summit to be held next April in London. It will also continue at the high-level conference to be organized by the United Nations next year to consider the effects of the financial crisis on development.
