With less than two months before he steps down as secretary-general after a 10-year tenure, Kofi Annan is disappointed that the international community is lagging behind in its much-touted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.
At this rate, he warns, many of the goals will not be met, “so we need to re-affirm our commitment to these goals,” which also include achieving universal primary education and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
s part of this process of re-commitment, the United Nations has turned to the world’s younger generation to increase awareness of the MDGs, and to help spread the word at the grassroots level.
“The older generation of leaders from around the world endorsed the Millennium Development Goals for 2015,” said Djibril Diallo, chair of the summit, “but it will take the full commitment and talents of the younger generation to help achieve them.”
According to the United Nations, younger people represent one-fourth of the world’s six billion people, of which 86 percent live in the developing world.
The United Nations estimates that one in five youth live on less than a dollar a day, and about 45 percent live on less than two dollars a day.
I agree with Kofi Annan that positive change in the world depends on the youth. The youth suffer the worst from the terrible effects of social injustice, inequality, hunger, and poverty. Further, the youth possess a stronger sense of justice and idealism, and they lack the cynicism and institutionalization of older people. When the youth inherit the world, they can change the world and finally put an end to the hunger and poverty epidemic.
What do you think?