Find here The Millennium Declaration

The Millennium Development Goals

 The United Nations Millennium Declaration sets the global agenda for the start of the 21st century. Adopted at the M illennium Summit ( New York, September 6-8, 2000), by 147 heads of states, and 191 nations in all. The millennium declaration defines specific and time  bound thematic issues and goals, to guide the daily activities of the UN and its programs, so that globalization becomes a positive force for all the world s people.

The Millennium Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2000 and was strengthened politically by the presence of an unprecedented number of heads of States. It updates many of the development goals originally set (and not met) for the year 2000 and reformulates them for the year 2015.

The MDGs include a selection of numerical and time-bound targets that encapsulate people s most basic aspirations for a better life. Between 1990 and 2015, countries including the Arabs agree to halve income poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce under  five mortality by two  thir, cut maternal mortality by three  quarters, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, ensure environmental sustainability, and build a global partnership for development. In affirmation of this commitment, all countries in the Arab region adopted the Millennium Declaration from which the eight millennium development goals (MDGs) are derived .

The eight goals are:

The regional context of the Millennium Development Goals Campaign

The Regional context

Social and economic conditions in the Arab countries are worsening and most of their indicators show a very negative result. The Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) issued in 2002 by the United Nation Development Program, obviously mentioned that social and economic indicators in the Arab countries are the worse comparing with other regions in the world.

Moreover, the inappropriate social and economic policies in most the Arab countries lead to enormous gaps between the haves and the have nots among their population. The deteriorating situation and living conditions, in addition to the repression and lack of democracy, the violation of human rights and the absence of any respect for the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) are generating fundamentalism and violence amongst Arab societies.

Promoting MDGs in the Arab Region

ANND aims at raising the awareness of civil societies in the Arab countries and building their capacities in order to enable them to monitor and to advocate the social and economic policies of their own governments. Moreover, ANND, as a regional focal point of Social Watch, is part of its global campaign on the MDG. ANND is planning to use the MDGs as a tool in order to launch the awareness campaign among the civil societies in Arab countries.

Furthermore, ANND encourages and support its members to elaborate relevant national targets and to improve appropriate indicators.

The Network worked on translation and dissemination of information and tools on the MDGs and contributed to enhancing the access of Arab civil society organizations ( CSOs) to information on the MDGs through developing a page on the MDGs on its website www.annd.org. In collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), ANND organized a regional strategic planning meeting on the MDGs in Beirut during April 2004, through which it aimed at expanding the involvement of Arab CSOs with the MDGs and contributing to coalition building in that regards. ANND also organized a series of national and regional consultations on civil society and development in each of Sudan , Yemen , Egypt , and Morocco and a regional youth workshop on the MDGs, which gathered young activists from ten different Arab countries. During 2005, ANND expanded its work on the MDGs through involvement with the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), as a regional focal contact.

In addition, ANND is a regional coordinator of the Social Watch in the Arab region, with which it works on monitoring and advocating the implementation of the commitments resulting from the UN summits, including the Copenhagen World Summit on Social Development in 1995 and the Millennium Summit in 2000. ANND ensures that six to eight annual national reports and one regional thematic report from the Arab region are part of the Social Watch annual report. Moreover, ANND has partnered with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) to enhance the participation of CSOs in the Experts’ Meeting as well as the regional Ministerial Meetings regarding the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Arab agenda on trade-related issues, aiming at enhancing exchange between the UN, government, and civil society on trade issue.

ANND had also closely worked with UNDP in Lebanon for the roll-out of an MDGs national plan and its implementation strategy . ANND is also involved in the elaboration of a national strategy for poverty eradication in coordination with the government and many local Lebanese CSOs.