UN needs co-operation
2005-07-19 15:01
Pretoria - Despite slow progress, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan believed it was possible to achieve the organisation's millennium development goals by 2015 through cooperation, former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano said on Tuesday.
"What is needed is for us to work together. We all have a common interest to defend," Chissano said.
He was speaking in his capacity as Annan's special envoy to Africa at a meeting of the Civil Society of South Africa convened by the Africa Institute of SA, the UN development programme and the SA non-governmental organisation coalition in Pretoria.
The eight development goals included eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women by the 2015 deadline.
Chissano said 147 heads of state would be meeting on September 5 at the UN headquarters in New York to review progress made since the goals were set in 2000.
- SAPA