Bangkok--9 Sep--UNISBKK Regional launch in Bangkok on 10 September by Noeleen Heyzer of ESCAP Nearly 100 Heads of State or Government will join United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 25 September to commit to further actions to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Halfway towards the target date of 2015, this will be the first summit-level gathering on the MDGs since 2000, when world leaders committed to the Goals laid out in the Millennium Declaration. The High-level Event is intended to review progress to date, identify gaps and next steps, and translate existing commitments into concrete plans and action on the ground to ensure that all countries can achieve the Goals. In the lead up to the High-level event, the United Nations will publish The Millennium Development Goals Report 2008, the most current global assessment on progress towards the MDGs, on Thursday, 11 September, with the Secretary-General launching this report in New York. The Asia-Pacific regional launch will take place in Bangkok on Wednesday, 10 September, at 13:30 at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand. Noeleen Heyzer, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), will present the report. The launch is embargoed until Thursday, 11 September. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2008 shows the strong and sustainable progress towards the development objectives of the MDGs under threat by higher prices for food and oil as well as the global economic slowdown. New estimates confirm that between 1990 and 2005, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen — from 1.8 to 1.4 billion — and that the 1990 global poverty rate is likely to be halved by 2015. However, the report says that because of higher food prices this downward trend is likely to be reversed, pushing many people into poverty, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, already the regions with the largest numbers of people living in extreme poverty. For more information, please contact: UN Information Services, ESCAP Tel.: +66-2-288-1861-9; Fax: +66-2-288-1052 Email: [email protected]