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South Africa has called for faster action to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially on the African continent.
A new report card shows sub-Saharan Africa is making good progress. However, not all countries are advancing at the same rate as some still suffer political and economic instability.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, International Relations Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, said South Africa was concerned about the slow progress in meeting the MDGs.
She called on the international community to come on board and help Africa in lifting its people out of the scourge of poverty, disease and underdevelopment.
"With only five years left to achieve the MDGs, all nations need a far greater sense of urgency if the targets are to be met. If Africa fails to achieve the MDGs, the world would have failed," Nkoana-Mashabane told the General Assembly.
The MDGs are a set of targets established by the United Nations in 2000, aimed at responding to the world's development challenges, among them the alleviation of poverty.
However, with the economic crisis, some developed countries have limited their funding to fight poverty in African countries.
Nkoana-Mashabane said this must not dampen their determination to deliver on their commitments to help Africa. Instead, she continued: "It must be a call to all of us to do more, working together, for a better life and a better world." - BuaNews
