UN High-level Plenary Meeting on MDGs (MDG Summit), New York, USA

UN High-level Plenary Meeting on MDGs (MDG Summit), 20-22 September 2010, New York, USA

This briefing paper is intended to provide information and background on the upcoming United Nations High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals – or MDG summit - which will take place from 20-22 September at UN Headquarters in New York. For information on the format of the Summit, click here

What is the MDG Summit in September?

Following on a proposal by the UN Secretary-General, the General Assembly has decided to convene an MDG summit (High-level Plenary Meeting) on 20-22 September, with the primary objective to accelerate progress towards all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, taking into account the progress made towards the internationally agreed development goals (A/RES/64/184). The summit is expected to undertake a comprehensive review of successes, best practices and lessons learned, obstacles and gaps, challenges and opportunities, “leading to concrete strategies for action”. The President of the General Assembly has appointed two ‘Co-facilitators’ to lead the inter-governmental negotiating process. They will likely wait until after the UN Secretary-General releases his report on the MDGs in March to begin. The Co-facilitators are the Ambassadors of Senegal and Denmark to the United Nations in New York.

In addition to the official preparatory process, a number of related events and reports will feed into government deliberations leading to the September summit.

Of particular relevance to civil society organisations are the Hearings of the General Assembly – a part of the official process - that will be convened from 14-15 June 2010 in New York. The details of this meeting are still being finalized, but they likely will be similar to the Hearings that were convened in 2005 in conjunction with the 2005 World Summit.

For more information, visit: http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?page=article_s&id_article=1963