millennium development goals

International Women’s Day is a good day to remind ourselves that gender equality is indeed smart economics. As the global economy continues to struggle to regain its footing after a severe economic slump, it is increasingly apparent that the power of women must be harnessed—and it must happen now.

At this week's United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues meeting, the tenth such gathering of the world’s indigenous peoples, the UN launched a new initiative, the UN Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership, to promote the rights of the world’s indigenous peoples.  The goal of the partnership is to strengthen the institutions and ability of indigenous peoples to fully participate in governance and policy processes at local and national levels. 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted at the launch that “indigenous people suffered centuries of oppression, and continue to lose their lands, their languages and their resources at an alarming rate.”  The UN highlights that indigenous children are less likely than other children to be in school and more likely to drop out of school. Indigenous girls are at even greater risk of being excluded from school. This resonates as well with the recent World Bank Global Monitoring Report, which devoted a chapter to the issue of indigenous and vulnerable peoples and the need to address their needs in order to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Twenty years ago when I was a relatively new economist at the World Bank, I was part of the Bank’s delegation to Jomtien, Thailand, where the heads of several multilateral development agencies, bilateral aid agencies, and leaders of 155 developing countries came together to declare their commitment to universal primary education.

I remember that the mood was upbeat—and not only because the venue was set along Thailand's sunny coast. There was a strong shared feeling that it was time to recommit to education as a basic human right, as highlighted by James Grant, the Executive Director of UNICEF at the time, and as a powerful instrument for reducing poverty and promoting development, as outlined by Barber Conable, World Bank President at the time. 

Co-authored by Lesley Drake, Director of the Partnership for Child Development

As leaves crackled and autumn closed in on Washington DC at this time last year, the Brookings Institution played host for a special event focused on global hunger. At that time, World Bank President, Robert B. Zoellick, joined Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Programme, Josette Sheeran, for a pre-Thanksgiving discussion on the fight against food insecurity that continues to wage on for millions around the globe.

Many of those hungry are the most vulnerable—particularly children.