MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS:
JOINT STATEMENT FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER, CARDINAL CORMAC MURPHY-O’CONNOR AND THE ARCHBISHOP OF SAINT ANDREWS AND EDINBURGH, CARDINAL KEITH PATRICK O’BRIEN

We commend the Prime Minister and the UN Secretary General for making this Declaration. It is vitally important for two reasons:

First, it reminds us that we are not on track to meet the commitments we agreed to back in 2000 and calls for an international summit in 2008 to focus much needed attention on the challenge.

Today we have the means to achieve the MDGs - now we need the will.

Second, the Declaration recognises that the MDGs will only be achieved by a partnership involving the key stakeholders in society - states, faiths, civil society and the private sector. This is a crucial point. We have long believed that faith groups in particular are crucial to deliver the MDGs because in much of the Developing world, it is faith groups that provide many of the educational and health services.

We believe that such a partnership on the international level - involving all the relevant stakeholders in society - could make the difference between success and failure in 2015.


ENDS

Peter Kearney Director
Catholic Media Office
5 St. Vincent Place
Glasgow
G1 2DH
0141 221 1168
pk@scmo.org
www.scmo.org

Full text of Prime Minster's statement:

http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page12770.asp