Minister of State Conor Lenihan T.D. welcomes 2005 UN Human Development Report.
Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister of State for Development Cooperation and Human Rights, today welcomed the publication of the 2005 Human Development Report.
The 15th Human Development Report is being delivered to world leaders one week in advance of their gathering in New York to assess progress and agree steps toward the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals endorsed at the last world summit at the UN in 2000, including the pledge to halve extreme poverty globally by 2015.
Welcoming the Report, Minister Lenihan said,
“The clear message is that while some progress has been made, much remains to be done if the international community is to reach the 2015 deadline for achieving the development goals we set ourselves in 2000. The Report bluntly says, 'there is little cause for celebration'.
I fully agree with the Report's recommendations on the need to increase the quality and the quantity of aid, if we are to make the necessary progress. The quality of Ireland's aid is recognised by both NGOs and other donors. The Report rightly emphasises the importance of donors untying their aid. In Ireland, we can be proud of the lead role we have taken in this, as Ireland's aid is 100% untied”.
Minister of State Lenihan also welcomed the emphasis in the Report on the need to deal with the threats to development from the failure to prevent conflict or to secure peace.
“I believe that the proposal for a new Peace Building Commission to help countries coming out of conflict and make sure that they do not fall back into the same situation is one of the most useful initiatives to emerge from this whole UN Summit process.”
Note for Editors
Every year since 1990, the UNDP has commissioned the Human Development Report from an independent team of experts to explore major issues of global concern. A worldwide advisory network of leaders in academia, government and civil society contribute data, ideas, and best practices to support the analysis and proposals published in the report.
The Report echoes what has come out of a number other major reports prepared for the major five year review of progress in commitments made at the Millennium Summit, including Kofi Annan's own report In Larger Freedom, i.e. that progress towards the Millennium Development Goals is mixed and there is much to be done if we are to meet the 2015 target.
The Report examines what we need to do in the three areas of aid, trade and security, in order to achieve the MDGs. Building on the 2001 Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development, the Report urges developing countries to take primary responsibility for their own development, with developed countries ensuring that transparent, credible and properly costed national development strategies receive the full support they need to meet the MDGs. The Report says that while it would be unrealistic to expect the Doha Round of trade negotiations to correct all of the imbalances in the rules, the WTO ministerial meeting planned for December 2005 provides an opportunity to address some of the most pressing challenges. “..it could set the scene for future rounds aimed at putting human development at the heart of the multilateral system”.
The Report endorses Kofi Annan's argument that there is an urgent need to develop a collective security framework that goes beyond military responses to the threats posed by terrorism, to a recognition that poverty, social breakdown and civil conflict form core components of the global security threat. ”The interaction between poverty and violent conflict in many developing countries is destroying lives on an enormous scale- and hampering progress towards the MDGs”. The Report argues that failure to build human security will have global consequences.
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7 July 2005
