Global Call to Action Against Poverty's reaction to the summit

This lunchtime I went to a panel discussion at the UN Church Center. As, for once, I managed to take a reasonable photograph indoors, I am posting it here.

The panel, from left to right, consisted of Adelaide Sosseh, Co-Chair, Global Call to Action Against Poverty; Colm O Cuanachain, Senior Director, Amnesty International; Gemma Adaba, UN Representative, International Trade Union Confederation; Lucy Mulenkei, African Indigenous Women's Organisation; Joanna Kerr, Chief Executive, Action Aid; Ray Offenheiser, President, Oxfam America.

They had come together to give an NGO response to the progress of the Millennium Development Goals Summit. They generally called for a clearer senses of how all the things that United Nations is going to "resolve" to do will actually be brought about and wanted more money to be devoted to doing so.

I liked the comment of Adelaide Sosseh to the effect that the summit was about education. If New Yorkers had not heard of the MDGs before, they certainly would have now - if only because so many roads are shut off and it is so hard to get around.