Failure to meet MDGs not an option - McKinnon

Accra, Sept. 15, GNA - Commonwealth Secretary General, Mr Don McKinnon, has said that failure to meet the Millennium Development Gaols (MDGs) in 2015 was not an option because too much was at stake. "We can no longer be satisfied with incremental change, but a radical change is needed in order to ensure that the goals are reached," he said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of the Commonwealth Finance Ministers meeting in Barbados from September 19 to 20, this month, Mr McKinnon said, "We must hasten our efforts to raise the standard of living of the poor and end the poverty."

The meeting to be chaired by the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mr Owen Arthur, would bring together ministers and delegates from up 53 countries to discuss the theme: "Giving practical effect for the Millennium Project Review."

The statement said Professor Jeffery Sachs, who was conducting the Millennium Review for the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan would present his findings at the meeting and suggest ways that would help accelerate the progress towards reaching the MDGs.

Issues such as the risk to Commonwealth developing countries arising from high and volatile oil prices, the twin US budget and trade deficits, the weakness of the US dollar, higher interest rates in industrial countries among others would also feature on the agenda. A day before the start of the Barbados meeting, the Commonwealth Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Ministerial Forum would be held to discuss the debt relief package announced by the G-8 Summit in Gleneagles last July.