Partnership Events
Partnership events by a variety of constituencies took place during the week of the High-level Event, 22-26 September. Ranging from multi-stakeholder discussions to launches of new initiatives, these events aimed to share success stories and lessons learned, provide opportunities to forge new partnerships and generate commitments to concrete next steps. Because of security and space constraints, most of these events took place outside of the main UN building.
Governments, foundations, businesses and civil society groups have rallied around the call to action to slash poverty, hunger and disease by 2015, by announcing new commitments to meet the Millennium Development Goals, at a high-level event at United Nations Headquarters on 25 September 2008. "Today we did something special. We brought together a broad coalition for change," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the end of the day-long event, which he convened with General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto. The gathering "exceeded our most optimistic expectations," he stated, noting that it generated an estimated $16 billion, including some $1.6 billion to bolster food security, more than $4.5 billion for education and $3 billion to combat malaria.
"I am grateful for all the energy invested in this High-level Event by developed and developing countries, civil society, faith groups, foundations and the private sector. ... My great hope for today was that all development partners would join forces to accelerate MDG progress. We have succeeded. We did this together. And now, we must forge ahead. We must make it happen."
-- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 25 September 2008