Dunya: Maldives has achieved most MDGs

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dunya Maumoon has said that Maldives has fully achieved most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set by the United Nations in 2000.

At the Millennium Summit of the UN in 2000, all 189 UN member states agreed to achieve the following eight goals by 2015: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development.

Speaking at a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today, Dunya said that Maldives faced challenges in two out of the eight goals: achieving gender equality, and ensuring environmental sustainability.

Referring to the challenges faced by the Maldives in relation to the MDGs, Foreign Secretary Dr Ali Naseer said that it was not possible for developing countries to achieve these two goals by themselves, and that international assistance was necessary for developing countries to progress in these areas.

A summit has been scheduled from 25 to 27 September 2015 in New York, to set a “Post 2015 Development Agenda”.

Foreign Ministry has said that the Post 2015 Development Agenda was compiled after discussions between UN member states held in New York from 20 to 31 July 2015, in which Maldives, as the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), played a major role.