NEW YORK, NY - August 25, 2010
-- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today appointed a Group of Eminent
Persons to advise on the support needed to help the world's poorest
nations achieve their development targets, ahead of a major
international conference on the least developed countries
(
LDCs) slated for
next year.
The group consists of 10 members chosen for
their "high international stature, expertise and strong commitment to
global development," Mr. Ban's spokesperson said in a
statement.
Co-chaired
by Alpha Oumar Konaré, former president of Mali, and Jacques Delors,
former president of the European Commission, the group will raise public
awareness and build strong political commitment in support of the
world's 49 LDCs in key areas, including trade, investments, technology
transfer, official development assistance and adaptation to the effects
of climate change.
Its establishment comes ahead of the
Fourth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) due to take
place in Istanbul, Turkey, from 30 May to 3 June 2011, which is
considered a "milestone event," according to the statement.
The
Istanbul conference will assess the implementation of the Brussels
Programme of Action for the LDCs - the outcome document adopted at the
2001 LDC conference - and reach agreement on a new generation of
international support measures for the LDCs.
The 10-year
Brussels Programme of Action outlines measures to be taken by both
industrialized nations and the LDCs themselves to reduce poverty and
achieve sustainable development.
It includes specific
commitments on good governance, enhancing the role of trade in
development, reducing vulnerability to natural disasters, protecting the
environment, mobilizing financial resources, and speedy implementation
of steps to reduce the debt burden on poor countries.
UN
officials, including Mr. Ban and the High Representative for the Least
Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island
Developing States, Cheick Sidi Diarra, have stressed the need for strong
international support to help LDCs achieve the Millennium Development
Goals (
MDGs), the eight
globally-agreed targets to halve poverty and other socio-economic ills
by 2015.
The Group of Eminent Persons also comprises Sir
Fazle Hassan Abed, the founder and chairperson of BRAC, the Bangladesh
Rehabilitation Assistance Committee; Nancy Birdsall, the founding
president of the Center for Global Development; Kemal Dervis, vice
president and director of Global Economy and Development at Brookings
Institution, and a former head of the UN Development Programme
(
UNDP); and James Wolfensohn, chairman and
CEO of Wolfensohn & Company and former President of the World Bank.
Hiromasa
Yonekura, chairman of Sumitomo Chemical Company Ltd.; Louis Michel, a
member of European Parliament and formerly the European commissioner for
Development and Humanitarian Aid; Louis A. Kasekende, Deputy Governor
of the Bank of Uganda and formerly executive director at the World Bank;
and Sir Richard Jolly, Honorary Professor of the Institute of
Development Studies at the University of Sussex, are also members.