Focus on poor countries, PM tells int'l conference

BRUSSELS (CMC):

Jamaica has told an international conference that more attention should be paid to the unique challenges facing middle-income developing countries as well as small-island developing states including those in the Caribbean.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, addressing the European Development Days forum that ended yesterday, said that middle income countries were home to the majority of the world's poor and there was need to accelerate the development of these nations.

"I urge leaders at all levels to make it a priority to quickly establish a clear roadmap for agreeing on a sustainable development framework beyond the 2015 target date, as well as the action plan to support it," she told the forum that is being held under the theme 'A vision for the post-2015 agenda'.

The Jamaican leader said that when world leaders adopted the landmark United Nations Millennium Declaration 13 years ago, in which nation states agreed to eight development goals to be achieved by 2015, called the Millennium Development Goals, the deadline seemed a far way off.

"Much more needs to be done to close the gap between the haves and the have-nots to reduce and eradicate inequity, inequality and exclusion in our world," she said, insisting that the vision for the post-2015 agenda must envisage a development framework that was relevant, far-reaching and beneficial "for those for whom development and equitable growth have so far proven elusive."

She told the delegates that such an agenda must be transformative, action-oriented, and needs to send a clear message of hope to the millions who have been waiting expectantly for a difference to be made in their lives.

Prime Minister Simpson Miller, the only Caribbean leader attending the forum, said that post 2015 must address emerging global realities and challenges such as the trafficking of persons.

Meanwhile, President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said that the eradication of poverty was an imperative, noting that in the same way major challenges such as slavery and colonialism have been eliminated, poverty too can become a thing of the past.