Representatives of the Council of the European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) are to meet UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, in New York on 8 September 2005 to discuss the UN's Millennium Development Objectives.

 

CEMR's delegation will be led by its first vice-president and mayor of The Hague Wim Deetman, and will be part of the wider delegation of the world association of local government, United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) delegation, of which CEMR is the European section.

 

The meeting with Kofi Annan will take place ahead of the World leaders summit (14-16 September) that will review the progress made in implementing the Millennium Development Goals.

 

UCLG is lobbying for the final document of the World leaders summit to aknowledge the local dimension in fields such as governance, democracy, development... The meeting with the UN secretary general aims at requesting closer cooperation between UCLG and the United Nations.

 

The Millennium Development Goals

 

The Millennium Development Goals consists of a list of anti global poverty targets. These targets were adopted by world leaders at the UN Millennium summit in September 2000; they include halving extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, reducing infant mortality rate, reversing the spreads of diseases such as AIDS and malaria, ensuring environmental sustainability...