United Nations Millennium Development Goals

20 Days to Go: Why the G20?

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The G20 Summit in Seoul commences on 11 November. So too does the 10 City Bridge Run.

But why the G20? Isn’t that only about banking and a talk-fest among world leaders?

The 10 City Bridge Run forms a bridge conceptually between the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (in particular MDG 4: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate) and the leadership of the 20 largest economies (19 countries plus the European Union).

This is what the G20 agreed upon following the last meeting held in Toronto in June this year under the heading of ‘Development’:

We recognize that 2010 marks an important year for development issues. The September 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) High Level Plenary will be a crucial opportunity to reaffirm the global development agenda and global partnership, to agree on actions for all to achieve the MDGs by 2015, and to reaffirm our respective commitments to assist the poorest countries.

In this regard it is important to work with Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to make them active participants in and beneficiaries of the global economic system. Accordingly we thank Turkey for its decision to host the 4th United Nations Conference on the LDCs in June 2011.

Narrowing the development gap and reducing poverty are integral to our broader objective of achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth and ensuring a more robust and resilient global economy for all. In this regard, we agree to establish a Working Group on Development and mandate it to elaborate, consistent with the G-20’s focus on measures to promote economic growth and resilience, a development agenda and multi-year action plans to be adopted at the Seoul Summit.

 

The website foe the Working Group opens a blank page. I want that to change.

The methodology used by the 10 City Bridge Run is about raising awareness of an individual’s capacity to act to influence extreme poverty. It involves:

  • Observing
  • Listening
  • Bridge building
  • Petitioning
  • Doing
  • Asking institutions what action they took after making public statements
  • Learning

Join me on this journey. It is not a spectator sport.

 

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