U.N. SG Ban names 26 members to high-level advisory panel for development agenda

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday "announced the members of a High-level Panel to advise on the global development agenda beyond 2015, the target date for achieving the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," the U.N. News Centre reports. "The eight MDGs, agreed on by world leaders at a U.N. summit in 2000, set specific targets on poverty alleviation, education, gender equality, child and maternal health, environmental stability, HIV/AIDS reduction, and a 'Global Partnership for Development,'" the news service writes (7/31).

Inter Press Service notes that the panel will hold its first meeting at the end of September and plans to submit a report to Ban in the first half of 2013. "I look forward to the panel's recommendations on a global post-2015 agenda with shared responsibilities for all countries and with the fight against poverty and sustainable development at its core," Ban said, IPS reports (7/31). Presidents Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain will co-chair the 26-person panel, Agence France-Presse notes, and lists the 23 other panel members (7/31).