MDGs: A Declaration
06 August 2007
Accra Daily Mail
London: A commentary by international private sector leaders on MDGs:
At the Millennium Summit in 2000 the world declared it would spare no effort to achieve the seven key Millennium Development Goals. There has been some progress. But seven years later and half way to 2015 the world is not on track to meet that commitment. We have just seven years to go – a few short years to make the difference for millions of people on our planet between grinding poverty and the opportunity to learn, be healthy and make enough to support their families.
We need urgent action to meet this development emergency if the world is to get back on track.
With will we know we can make the difference. We can build on the progress that has been made on every continent when the right policies have been combined with sufficient resources.
But we need to go further. We need to mobilise all our efforts. The eighth Millennium pledge was that we would “develop a global partnership for development”. The time has come for us all to live up to that promise. We believe we now need an international effort that harnesses the power of everyone: the private sector, individuals, consumers, faith groups, cities, civil society organisations, as well as governments, north and south, to work together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
We believe now is the time to act not talk. We know what needs to be done and the urgency of doing it.
So today, as leaders from the private sector, we declare our commitment to meet this development emergency. We commit to action and because the scale of the challenge means no one acting alone can achieve the difference we need, we call on all parties including the private sector, governments, civil society and faith groups to play their part. It is only by acting together in a genuine partnership that we can succeed.
We urge the convening of a UN meeting in 2008 that brings together heads of government with leaders from the private sector, civil society and faith to review progress made in the preceding 12 months and accelerate action.
The declaration above was endorsed by:
Bernard Arnault, Chairman LVMH
Riley Bechtel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Bechtel Corporation
Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Cynthia Carroll, Chief Executive of Anglo American plc
Patrick Cescau, Group Chief Executive, Unilever PLC/Unilever N.V.
John T. Chambers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco Systems
Ian E. L. Davis, Worldwide Managing Director, McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Sir Niall Fitzgerald, Chairman, Reuters Group plc
Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft
Jeff Immelt, Chief Executive Officer, GE
Graham Mackay, Chief Executive, SABMiller
Indra Nooyi, President and Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo Inc.
Nicky Oppenheimer, Chairman, De Beers Group
Chuck Prince, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Citigroup
Arun Sarin, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone
Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Google Inc.
H. Lee Scott Jr, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, FedEx
Ratan Tata, Chairman of The Tata Group
Gunter Thielen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bertelsmann AG
Paul Walsh, Chief Executive Officer, Diageo
Keywords: MDGs, donors, Africa, private sector
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