07 December 2004

Islamabad, Pakistan: With the deadline of the eight development targets a decade away, many millions of people must be mobilized into action if the Millennium Development Goals are to be met, says Ad de Raad, Executive Coordinator of the UN Volunteers (UNV) programme.

Addressing delegates in Pakistan’s capital city on 5 December at the opening ceremony of the first UN system international conference on Volunteerism and the Millennium Development Goals, Mr de Raad urged governments to fully support and promote the involvement of ordinary citizens in voluntary activities that contribute to the Goals.

“As of 2005, there will be ten years left to make significant progress in reaching the Millennium Development Goals or to fall further backwards. We cannot even begin to consider the implications for peace and security of the latter,” he says. “This conference will help raise global awareness of the power and critical importance of volunteer contributions to development and that it will add significantly to knowledge on ways and means to fully harness the potential of volunteerism.”

Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, opened the conference and was also joined by UN Pakistan’s Resident Coordinator, Onder Yucer, and UNICEF’s Executive Director, Carol Bellamy.

Hosted and organized by the Pakistan Government and in partnership with the United Nations system, the three-day conference has attracted some 200 international experts in the thematic areas of poverty eradication, governance, youth, education, gender, health and nutrition, HIV/Aids, environmental sustainability, and international development cooperation.

The outcomes of the conference are anticipated to provide direct input into next September’s review at the UN General Assembly of the progress made towards achieving the Goals set out in 2000.