WaterAid is pleased to announce that Ambassador Jan Eliasson - the current Chair of WaterAid in Sweden, and the former Swedish Foreign Minister, former President of the UN General Assembly and former UN Special Envoy to Darfur - has been asked to join this esteemed group.
The Group has been brought together by the UN Secretary General to use its influence in the lead up to and during the MDG+10 Summit being held at the UN in September this year, where member states will come together to assess progress made, as well as obstacles encountered as the world seeks to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
The MDGs, eight time-bound goals agreed to by UN member states in 2000 to help bring an end to global poverty, are meant to be achieved by 2015, yet many key goals, including the target for sanitation, remain woefully off track.
"I am delighted to join the UN Secretary General's group as the world seeks to achieve the Millennium Development Goals," said Ambassador Eliasson. "It is critical that we use this opportunity to ensure that progress across all of these vital targets to stamp out poverty are met as world leaders promised ten years ago."
Heads of State and governments meeting at the Summit will seek to produce an "Action Plan" designed to identify key areas of emphasis to guide international efforts in the remaining years until the 2015 deadline. The Secretary General's group will play a key role in working to rally support for progress in these lagging goals, including sanitation.
The target to reduce the proportion of people living without access to basic sanitation facilities by half is the most lagging sector within the MDGs and at current rates is not set to be met in Sub Saharan Africa for almost another 200 years. Lack of access to sanitation is holding up progress across all the MDGs and the most off track outcomes, particularly those relating to health.
"We know that water and sanitation are critical in the fight against poverty – without access to these basic human rights thousands of children die every day, girls don't go to school, the economic prosperity of millions is undermined and conflict may follow," said Ambassador Eliasson. "I will be working to ensure that sanitation, alongside the other lagging targets, is addressed at the Summit in September. Without clear political commitment these issues will continue to be neglected, with disastrous impact across all MDGs."
Other members of the MDG Advocacy group include: Bill Gates, Muhammad Yunus, Michelle Bachelet, Wangari Maathai, Graça Machel, Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Ted Turner. The group will be chaired by Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain.
Jan Eliasson is available for interview. For more information please contact: Chloe Irvine on +44 77716 545 44, chloeirvine@wateraid.org, or Jonathan Rich on +1-347-262-9115.
Notes to Editors:
WaterAid's vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation. Our mission is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world's poorest communities. We work with partners and influence decision-makers to maximise our impact.
- At least 4,000 children die every day as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation.
- 884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world's population.
- 2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is almost two fifths of the world's population.
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