FIVE YEARS ON - NEPAD reviews Millennium Development Goals in Africa

2005 marks the fifth anniversary of the Millennium Declaration which gave birth to the Millennium Development Goals, a global commitment to a major reduction of poverty by 2015.

In line with the NEPAD principle of African leadership and ownership of Africa′s development, the NEPAD Secretariat has been preparing a report, based on its own analysis of the status of MDGs in Africa, to identify the constraints, prospects and challenges in meeting the MDGs and to assess the human, technological and financial resources needed to reach the goals.

The report will be prepared for each of the five African Union sub-regions of the continent and will reflect their respective needs and priorities, laying the foundation for collective action by African leaders, policy makers and their development partners in helping African countries meet the MDGs by 2015. The final AU/NEPAD MDG Report will be presented at Africa’s MDG Review Summit in July 2005 in Addis Ababa as a precursor to the UN Millennium Declaration Review Summit scheduled to take place in New York in September 2005.

As the Nepad Secretariat notes, "The significance of the year and the unprecedented opportunities Africa has to influence the development agenda make it imperative that Africa speaks with one voice for a common response to meeting the MDGs across the continent." www.nepad.org