UN Summit Begins and Ends with World Economic Instability as Main Focus

As more Americans are broaching poverty due to lack of jobs and financial stability, the world’s leaders are trying to address the issue.

This is not a new topic, but one that “sustainable development” for the world is “desperately in need of,” stated, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who began the summit on Monday. The ambitious “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs) is the term UN leaders used during the 2000 UN summit to address the issue in the past but one that Ban Ki-moon has reminded the world’s leaders that needs to be “put back on track.”

By the year 2015, the MDG hopes to see notable decline in world poverty, the reason for the unnecessary and avoidable deaths of millions, but experts are nonetheless skeptical.

Some experts are even saying that “it will be impossible” to meet the goals, as the world’s economic situation has become dire. The goals of the program hope to see the level of poverty cut in half by 2015. Solutions have been tossed around, ranging from fair trade agreements, upgrading and overhauling healthcare and education systems and even making the Internet available to the world's poor.

The UN Secretary stated that countries have to commit financially and politically for the MDG to work toward a viable solution. But money however is not so easily attainable. More countries are feeling the crisis of financial setbacks due to a lack of jobs and an aging population.

And although the European Union and the World Bank are committing to almost two billion dollars in MDG funding between the two, it is still not enough to address the entire world’s need for better education and health care, two primary goals. The MDG program lacks 120 billion dollars that, in order to implement the goals, needs to “be found” over the next five years.

Another topic, the advancement of equality, is a goal that has faced setbacks. It is believed that better education, especially for women, is a need that although seemingly necessary is plagued by reductions in many of the country’s social programming because the money is simply not available.

Some of the proposals that the UN is looking toward implementing to raise the necessary funding to aid the MDG strategic planning include taxing plane tickets, Internet access, mobile phone usage and financial transactions. French President Sarkozy is calling for a tax on banks to help pay for development.

The UN chief is hoping that philanthropic efforts from some of the world’s rich and powerful will help meet the financial goals.

Overall, the summit began on a low note. The political message that ended the first day of the summit was depressing, world leaders concluding that if the situation is not addressed now it will be far worse in the future unless a new strategy is implemented and carried out.

President Obama is scheduled to close the meeting on Wednesday with what will more than likely be one of inspiration and hope for a world that is collectively suffering from economic crises.