Today marks 1000 days until the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals. And Australia stands as a lead partner with the United Nations, as they launch their 1000 Days of Action.
From now until that deadline in 2015, Australia and other United Nations partners across the world will be pushing harder to meet the goals set in September 2000.
Since that time, extreme poverty has been halved globally. Millions more children are going to school, many of them girls. Fewer children die each day – due to better maternal and child health efforts, better food and nutrition, widespread immunisation and vastly improved water and sanitation. We have made great inroads in the prevention and treatment of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
Now the UN 1000 Days of Action campaign aims to accelerate momentum, with a sharpened focus on hunger, access to education, improved sanitation, maternal health and gender equality. The UN is calling on governments, international organisations and civil society groups, to accelerate efforts to achieve the goals in the lead up to the deadline in 2015.
Australia is a lead advocate for the MDGs, and our aid program has made inroads across all MDGs.
In fact, over the past 40 years, we have seen unprecedented improvements- a woman's chance of dying during or after childbirth has dropped by 50 per cent, the chance of an adult not being able to read has halved, and the average life expectancy in developing countries has increased by 20 years.
Australian aid has contributed to these achievements, making a difference to the lives of our neighbours and boosting growth and stability in our region.
It is particularly significant that Australia's aid program focuses on the Asia Pacific region, because two-thirds of the world's poor–some 800 million people–live here yet receive less than one third of global aid.
We are internationally recognised for our leading role in the region, particularly in PNG and the Pacific. And we are having an impact, delivering aid where it will make the most difference to the lives of our neighbours in these countries.
Our education programs, gender programs, agriculture, climate change immunisation and child health programs, as well as law and order and infrastructure, have changed lives.
In addition, we will continue our internationally recognised work with fragile and conflict affected states where we devote more than half of our bilateral and regional aid. Fragile and conflict-affected communities are the poorest and most vulnerable, and have been identified as a priority action area in the push to accelerate the MDG progress.
This work will continue as our aid budget continues to increase toward the Gillard Government's commitment to the expected target of 0.5 of GNI by 2016-17.
As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon points out, the MDGs have helped united, inspire and change the world. The Australian Government is proud to be part of that change. But there remains much to do, up to and beyond 2015, to achieve our ultimate goal of ending extreme poverty.