United Nations to Release Report On Progress of Millennium Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean

(29 June 2010) The Deputy Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Antonio Prado, the Regional Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Pedro Medrano, and the Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Niky Fabiancic, will release the report Achieving the Millennium Development Goals with equality in Latin America and the Caribbean. Progress and challenges on Thursday, 1 July.

The document examines the current state of progress of countries in the region in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and will be presented at United Nations headquarters in New York at 1 p.m. in the context of the High-Level Segment 2010 of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The 2010 report on the MDGs in the region was prepared within the framework of the United Nations Regional Coordination Mechanism by 18 UN agencies, funds and specialized bodies working in Latin America. They are: the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN-HABITAT, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Pan-American Health Organization/World Health organization (PAHO/WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Office for Project Services UNOPS, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

The inter-agency report coordinated by ECLAC reviews countries' progress towards meeting the MDGs and the challenges ahead to fully attain these goals.

The Millennium Development Goals were adopted in 2000 by the governments of 189 countries as a commitment to combat inequality and improve human development around the world. It is a roadmap towards achieving the following goals by 2015: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, improve health, revert environmental degradation and foment global partnerships.

The 2010 report on MDGs in the region emphasizes a rights perspective and focuses on the need to close gaps and inequalities in all their expressions: gender, ethnic, socio-economic and territorial. It analyzes the post-crisis scenario in Latin America and the Caribbean and looks into productive employment and decent work, environmental sustainability, innovation and the technology gap and South-South cooperation.

The media is welcome to attend the presentation of the report at Conference Room 8 of the Conference Building of United Nations headquarters in New York.

The document will be available on the ECLAC webpage as of 1 July.

For enquiries, please contact ECLAC's Public Information and Web Services Section. Email: dpisantiago@cepal.org; telephone: (56-2) 210-2040/2149.