Jordan Times
Monday, April 5, 2004
Millennium Development Goals database project launched
AMMAN (JT) — The UN Resident Coordinator,
together with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, on Sunday
signed an agreement with the Department of Statistics to house the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) database to help the country monitor its progress
towards these goals.
The MDGs, which include a set of numerical and time-bound targets that global
communities must strive to achieve by 2015, encapsulate the basic aspirations
for a better world, according to a UNDP statement released yesterday.
Among their challenges, signatories of the MDGs are expected to halve income
poverty and hunger; guarantee primary education for all girls and boys; reduce
by two- thirds a child's risk of dying before age five and reduce by
three-quarters a woman's risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes.
It also expects countries to work on stopping and reversing the spread of
HIV/AIDS, protect the ecosystem and ensure that developed countries grant more
aid, fairer trade and steeper debt relief.
The Kingdom acknowledged its own commitment to achieve these goals when it
signed the Millennium Declaration during the Millennium Summit in September
2000.
United Nations agencies in Jordan, in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning
and International Cooperation and relevant ministries, are currently in the
process of preparing the draft report on “The Millennium Development Goals in
Jordan.”
According to the UN, producing the MDGs Jordan report is a way to foster and
focus public debate at the national and subnational level on specific
development priorities, which in turn will trigger action in terms of policy
reforms, institutional change and resource allocation.
It will give an overview of Jordan's achievements as well as what challenges
remain for reaching the targets by 2015, the statement said.