Developing countries must do more to reach the Millenium Development Goals

In his statement to the UN high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg stressed that developing countries bear the main responsibility for reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

The role of rich countries is to support the developing countries’ own plans to fight poverty.

- Both rich and poor countries can do more to reach the Millennium Development Goals, Jens Stoltenberg said in his speech.

He noted that Norway spends more than one per cent of BNI on development aid.

Many developing nations show good results. For example, Tanzania has almost reached universal access to education on the primary school level, and Ethiopia has halved child mortality. This shows that the choices developing nations make do matter.

Stoltenberg emphasised that developing nations must mobilise their own resources.

- Economic growth must be shared and benefit the poor, the Prime Minister said. And developing nations must fight corruption, utvikle good and efficient systems of taxation and use their own resources to combat poverty.

- I am satisfied that the UN member states have agreed on this during the high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals, said Stoltenberg.