Declaration on the Millennium Development Goals - Government Leaders

At the Millennium Summit in 2000 we declared we would spare no effort to achieve the seven key millennium development goals.

We have made some progress. But seven years later and half way to 2015 we are not on track to meet that commitment.

We have just seven years to go – a few short years to make the difference for millions of people on our planet between grinding poverty and the opportunity to learn, be healthy and make enough to support their families.

We need urgent action to meet this development emergency if the world is to get back on track.

With political will we know we can make the difference. We can build on the progress that has been made on every continent when the right policies have been combined with sufficient resources. 

But we need to go further. We need to mobilise all our efforts. Our eighth Millennium pledge was that we would “develop a global partnership for development”.  The time has come for us all to live up to that promise.  We believe we now need an international effort that harnesses the power of everyone: the private sector, individuals, consumers, faith groups, cities, civil society organizations as well as governments north and south to work together to achieve the MDGs.

We believe now is the time to act not talk. We know what needs to be done and the urgency of doing it. 

So today, as leaders, we declare our commitment to meet this development emergency. We commit to action and because the scale of the challenge means governments alone cannot achieve the difference we need, we call on all parties including private sector, civil society and faith groups to play their part. It is only by acting together in a genuine partnership that we can succeed.

We urge the convening of a UN meeting in 2008 that brings together heads of government with leaders from the private sector, civil society and faith to review progress made in the preceding 12 months and accelerate action.