Declaration on the Millennium Development Goals by heads of state
31 July 2007
Background
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for a renewed international effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Speaking at the United Nations headquarters in New York, he said the "pace has been too slow and uncertain" in meeting the promises made by world leaders seven years ago, and that it was vital that individuals and groups from all countries "come together to forge a new global alliance for peace and prosperity."
To help achieve this, 12 world leaders and 20 top businessmen and women signed up to a new commitment to meet this development emergency. Mr Brown also called for an emergency meeting to be held next year to report on progress against the goals.
Joint Declaration
At the Millennium Summit in 2000 we declared we would spare no effort to achieve the seven key Millennium Development Goals.
We have made some progress. But seven years later and half way to 2015 we are 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 political will in developed and developing countries we know we can make the difference. We can build on the progress that has been made in many countries and on every continent when the right policies and right reforms have been combined with sufficient resources.
But we need to go further. We need to mobilise all our efforts in both the developing and developed countries. Our 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 know what needs to be done and the urgency of doing it.
So today, as leaders, we declare our commitment to meet this development emergency. We commit to action and because the scale of the challenge means governments alone cannot achieve the difference we need, we call on all parties, including the private sector, 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.
Signatories
This declaration has been endorsed by:
- Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan
- José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
- Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- George W. Bush, President of the United States of America
- Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
- John Agyekum Kufuor, President of the Republic of Ghana
- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of the Federal Republic of Brazil
- Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Romano Prodi, President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic
- Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic
- Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of the Republic of India
- José Sόcrates, Prime Minister of the Portuguese Republic and President of the Council of the European Union
- Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway
- José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Spain
