17 September 2010

Obama U.N. Speech to Address Extreme Poverty

President Obama addresses the U.N. General Assembly in September 2009.

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — President Obama will talk about eradicating extreme global poverty when he addresses a high-level meeting of world leaders during the opening of the 65th U.N. General Assembly in New York, a senior U.S. diplomat says.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is convening a three-day meeting of world leaders September 20–22 to discuss progress toward achieving the U.N.-sponsored Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The United Nations agreed in September 2000 to achieve eight development goals by 2015 through a global partnership of nations and leading development institutions.

“Eradicating extreme poverty continues to be one of the main challenges of our time, and is a major concern of the international community,” Ban said of the development goals. “Ending this scourge will require the combined efforts of all, governments, civil society organizations and the private sector, in the context of a stronger and more effective global partnership for development.

“The Millennium Development Goals set timebound targets, by which progress in reducing income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter and exclusion — while promoting gender equality, health, education and environmental sustainability — can be measured,” he added.

While the U.N. General Assembly opened its latest session on September 14, world leaders will begin arriving September 19 and through the remainder of the week in New York for the main session, which features speeches and high-level meetings set by the U.N. secretary-general. The meetings and addresses help set the agenda for the next year’s work and give leaders an opportunity to hold meetings on the sidelines of the sessions.

At a September 17 State Department briefing, Assistant Secretary of State Esther Brimmer said that “we will focus on core principles of leveraging innovation, investing in sustainability, tracking development outcomes and enhancing mutual accountability.” Brimmer said that the president will address the U.S. commitment to the development goals in a speech on September 22.

In addition to supporting the MDGs, Obama will also work toward improving the United Nations’ tools for peace and security as part of a U.N. Security Council summit on peacekeeping, promoting human rights and tackling environmental changes.

“Last year, President Obama made clear his intent to lead the United States back to the multilateral table, and that intent was defined as the era of engagement,” Brimmer told reporters. In the past year, that intent has become a period of improved action, driven by U.S. priorities, framed by U.S. values and guided by the president, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Susan Rice, she added.

In addition to the focus on major U.S. agenda goals this year, the president and secretary of state will participate in a meeting on Pakistan flood relief and recovery efforts, a meeting on reconstruction in Haiti, a meeting of the Middle East Quartet for Peace, a major meeting on child food security and nutrition that is co-sponsored by Ireland, and meetings on the NATO-Russia Council, Sudan, and maternal and child health.

“The United States has been a leading voice in promoting the participation of women in conflict resolution, peacekeeping and peace building,” Brimmer said. “And we’ve been active in trying to provide for the protection of women and girls, to try to counter sexual and gender-based violence.”

Obama will address the full U.N. General Assembly on September 23. He will meet with the 10 member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on September 24.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)