MDGs must reflect local conditions, says Mugabe

SADC chairperson President Robert Mugabe has urged the regional and global community to prioritize Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the context of local conditions affecting each country.

Speaking during the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday, President Mugabe acknowledged the role played by the MDGs but said the post MDGs agenda must be informed by national development priority and that the new targets must better reflect local conditions.

"….My country adopted the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET). This is a bold and achievable development programme that has the objective of achieving economic growth, job creation, affordable and reliable energy, among other things," Mugabe was quoted by the State broadcaster ZBC/TV today.

 "The Millennium Development Goals helped to focus and mobilize global development efforts in order to ease progress into social sectors. However, despite the significant achievements of the development goals, part of the unfinished business concerns the critical issue of poverty eradication, which remains the greatest global challenge. This issue should therefore top the priority and over-arching objective of the development agenda for the future," said Mugabe.

Mugabe also urged the world to achieve a seamless transition from the MDGs to the sustainable development goals and the broader post 2015 development agenda.

He said poverty reduction efforts need a holistic approach in domestic and international efforts, adding that he expects a holistic and candid debate on the challenges the world continues to face.

Mugabe who insisted that poverty reduction must top the post 2015 development agenda argued that ownership of the means of production by the majority and value addition of local resources are some of the ways to address socio-economic challenges facing nations.