Addressing the High-Level Plenary of the MDG Summit in New York on Tuesday, Mr. Thomas said that Grenada has fully achieved the goal of universal primary education and is on the way to achieve universal secondary education by 2011.
“Despite our limited resources we have also made significant strides in improving the literacy of our people through the introduction of a community-based literacy programme,” Prime Minister Thomas told Tuesday’s summit.
He said that since the signing of the Declaration in 2000, there have been many initiatives to address the human development needs of the country, noting a number of programmes aimed at improving and monitoring living conditions.
“Government continues to implement a number of safety net programmes to improve the living conditions of our people,” he said. “These we expect to greatly assist in our plans to eradicate poverty and hunger.”
The Prime Minister said that gender parity exists at all levels in the educational system in Grenada and the records have shown that females have been consistently outperforming males during the last decade.
He said that with regard to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, Grenada has partially achieved this goal. “Grenada has also actively promoted the removal of disparities in income and occupational opportunities for women at all levels and in every sector of our economy,” he said.
The Grenadian leader said that in order for Grenada to realise all of the MDGs by 2015, there is need to build global partnerships. He also noted Grenada’s 74th ranked status of 182 countries, according to the 2009 Human Development Report.
“Whilst these ratings highlight development progress made in Grenada, they tend to mask the country’s Small Island Developing States-specific vulnerabilities which are multidimensional in nature,” said Prime Minister Thomas.
However, he said despite these challenges, Grenada has made progress as a result of factors that enhance our resilience.
He said they include strong and consistent investment in social sector; vibrant community based organisations and non-governmental organisations involvement in social development; the mobilisation of resources; the pursuit of sound economic management and the resilience of Grenadians, among other things.
He called on the United Nations to assist developing countries in strengthening the institutional capacity necessary for mainstreaming and monitoring the MDGs.
The high-level meeting of the General Assembly is being held to take stock of the progress made so far towards the MDGs – which include slashing poverty, combating disease, fighting hunger, protecting the environment and boosting education – and to accelerate progress to reach the Goals by their 2015 target date.
Photo: Prime Minister Tillman Thomas addressing the Millennium Development Goals’ Summit in New York
No comments:
Post a Comment