poverty and disease

At the United Nations today, the Millennium Summit draws to a close with promises of more effective UN peacekeeping operations and greater efforts to reduce poverty and disease. The leaders of some 150 nations, the largest working summit ever convened, also held round-table discussions and hundreds of one-on-one meetings over the past three days. Throughout the proceedings, participants have paid special attention on Africa, which has sometimes been neglected by the UN. The promises made at this summit are contained in a millennium declaration, largely drafted before the meeting began. The declaration will be adopted as one of the last orders of business. UN General Secretary Kofi Anan does not want those promises to languish. Fred Ekard is Anan’s spokesman. "Those promises need to be translated into action, of course, and the Secretary General is expected to affirm the UN’s commitment to ensure that…st…the steps outlined in the declaration are realized. " The wording of the declaration is vague in places and as with all UN promises, there are doubt about whether these will be carried out. But South African President Umbeeki was hopefully today arguing that this summit was different than earlier congregations, and that reflected a new mood in the international community.