UN appoints Erna Witoelar as special envoy for MDG

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United Nations has appointed former minister for resettlement and regional infrastructure Erna Witoelar as its special envoy in the Asia Pacific for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

Erna said on Wednesday her appointment letter was signed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was confident she could successfully campaign for the development goals in the Asia Pacific over the next two years.

"Today (Wednesday) I start work, which is an honor for me," Erna said after meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda to inform him of her appointment as a UN special envoy.

With her appointment, Erna becomes the first UN special envoy for the Millennium Development Goals.

The goals were first introduced in September 2000 during the UN Millennium Summit.

Her tasks as a UN special envoy will include campaigning for the eradication of poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child and maternal mortality, combating HIV/AIDS, ensuring environmental sustainability and forming a global partnership for development.

One of the millennium development goals is to halve by 2015 the proportion of people whose income is less than US$1 a day. Another goal is to halve the number of people suffering from hunger by 2015.

Erna said she would travel around the Asia-Pacific region to encourage countries to live up to their commitments in implementing the development goals.

"I will meet with the leaders and parliaments of these countries to help speed up the implementation of the MDG," she said.

Erna will also look for hurdles to the implementation of the goals in different countries, and lobby developed countries to help resolve these problems.

"For example, some countries may be able to meet the MDG, but others may not be able to do so unless there is debt write-off," she said.

Malaysia has said that it will be able to meet the development goals by 2005, except for those related to the environment, while the Philippines has demanded a debt write-off to meet the goals.

Erna said that during her meeting with Hassan, the minister suggested she approach the Pacific Forum to help them implement the development goals.

Regarding Indonesia, she said she would talk with key officials to discuss the kind of assistance she could provide for the MDG campaign here.

"As far as I am know, the government is formulating programs to meet the MDG.

"I will talk to officials about the kinds of problems they face in achieving the MDG and the possible solutions to those problems," she said.

Erna said she would also urge developed countries to set aside 0.7 percent of their gross national products to help eradicate poverty in developing countries.

"So far only the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark have fulfilled their commitment to allocate 0.7 percent of their GNPs to help eliminate poverty,"she said.