Stronger partnerships needed for anti-poverty goals: UN report

New York, Sept 20: The international community should keep its commitments to strengthen partnership in support of closing gaps on anti-poverty targets, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to a UN report issued on Thursday.

"New countries and other partners are stepping up. But all must deliver on commitments - on official development assistance, climate finance and domestic resource mobilization," reports citied UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

He launched a new report finding that despite significant successes, the global economic slowdown continues to hinder progress on the MDGs.

Titled with "The Global Partnership for Development: The Challenge We Face," the UN report said that the international community must recommit to increasing aid and reaching an agreement on development-oriented multilateral trade.

UN Report: Nations must close gaps on anti-poverty targets

"While global economic trends are slowly improving, the crisis continues to take a toll," Ban said at the launch of the report, which comes amid the last 1,000 days of action towards the MDGs that are required to be accomplished by the year of 2015.

According to the annual report, several important targets have been met and are likely to be met by the target year of 2015 as a result of collective efforts by the international community, governments, private sector, civil society and other stakeholders.

The report called for bolder action in areas such as pollution, child and maternal health, HIV prevention and basic education.

IANS