Most fragile and post-conflict countries will most likely fail to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, the president of Timor-Leste said.
“The sooner we all accept this reality and begin to make amends, to take urgent action, the better,” Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta said at a U.N. gathering this week, according to IPS News.
The news agency notes that the outcome document adopted at the recently concluded U.N. high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals barely mentions conflict and fragility. But critical donors appear to be “at least listening” to the needs of these fragile and post-conflict countries, the agency adds.
“The international system is difficult to move, but the fact that key players like parts of the U.N. system, the World Bank and critical donors have picked up on and refer to the g7+ means that that impact is already being made,” said Asbjorn Wee, of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, as quoted by IPS News.
G7+ refers to the group of fragile states that met in Timor-Leste in April. At the recent U.N. summit, the group took aim at international donors through a consensus statement delivered by Ramos-Horta.
“All too often international engagement is slow in action and blocked by administrative and bureaucratic constraints. These hinder the effective and real-time engagement required to counter uncertainty, conflict, destruction and loss of life,” Ramos-Horta said. “Prioritization should include the principles of peacebuilding and statebuilding as mechanisms to achieve the MDGs.”
