Thanks to efforts by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and others, progress is being made to slow the spread of infectious diseases and provide assistance to those suffering from them. Aid is increasing throughout Africa and other areas to provide insecticide-treated mosquito nets, which can save as many as 20 per cent of children who would otherwise die from malaria.

Policies ... are now in place, helping to stem the burden of resistance to former malaria treatments and helping many to overcome the disease. A large campaign to eradicate polio over the past decade has nearly been completed, with only four polio-endemic countries left. It is suspected that transmission of the disease could be halted throughout the world by the end of 2006, with the possibility of the world being certified polio-free by the end of 2010.

From the work of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to ensure that policies to attain the Millennium Development Goals reach out to indigenous people to the likely conclusion of the first ever convention on protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities this year, progress towards policy implementation is evident. Another key issue ... how to realize the great potential of migration to advance worldwide development — will be addressed ... in the General Assembly.

This offers a unique opportunity for the UN to move policies towards economic and social progress for migrants and their countries of origin and destination. The Economic and Social Council has been called upon to play a critical role in the systematic follow-up and monitoring of progress of various programmes.

The annual ministerial reviews can become the major mechanism for strengthening accountability for international commitments to the MDG and the other agreed development goals. The Council’s high-level development cooperation forum will provide a global platform where all will be able to discuss key policy issues that affect development cooperation in all its forms ...

In spite of these adv- ances, progress remains much too incomplete. Most fundamentally, international financial commitments remain inadequate in terms of timing, volume and quality for achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the MDG. Many of the new promises will take years to materialize, so it is difficult for low-income countries to begin real investment scale-up ...

... Aggregate official development assistance reached a record high ... in 2005 ... but only a small fraction of this nominal increase actually represented additional finance to support real ground-level investments in the countries that need them most. Even multilateral debt relief yields little immediate gain for qualifying countries, since benefits are backloaded and additional financing is still necessary to ensure that multilateral development banks are adequately resourced to finance scale-up programmes.

It therefore remains as important as ever for developed countries without timetables for achieving the 0.7 per cent aid target to set them as soon as possible. Moreover, aid delivery mechanisms require dramatic improvement, building on the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

Another cause for concern is the suspension of negotiations of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Development Round. Developing countries require greater market access and support for capacity development in order to develop the longterm competitiveness that sustains economic development. Following the Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong, China, in December 2005, which produced few areas of agreement and little momentum, the talks were stalled in July 2006. In the coming months, leadership will be required from all sides, particularly the developed countries, if negotiations are to be saved. It is also important that the Aid for Trade Initiative endorsed at Hong Kong be pursued.

The costs of delay and inaction are borne globally, not just locally. One need only consider the challenges posed by emerging diseases such as avian influenza to understand the shared and urgent global interest in supporting practical development steps in all countries. We must recognize the nature of global trust at stake and the danger that many developing countries’ hopes could be irredeemably pierced if even the greatest anti-poverty movement in history is insufficient to break from “business as usual” As we move towards implementation in 2006 and beyond, we still must spare no effort.