5.     In many respects, the Millennium Declaration represented the international community’s response to the development and security challenges of a changing global environment. At its core is the commitment of world leaders to make globalization a positive force for all. They recognized that, even as the world has accumulated great wealth, many people remain mired in poverty and deprivation. Across the developing world, countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America have made significant strides in lifting their people out of poverty. But for many others, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, poverty, hunger, illiteracy, infectious diseases, unemployment and environmental degradation continue to pose daunting problems. Compounding these challenges, important differences have arisen since the Declaration’s adoption over the changing nature and sources of conflict, over the most effective way to safeguard security, and over basic approaches to collective security.

6.      The complexity of the challenges that the world confronts has sparked renewed international reflection. Various independent panels and commissions of experts and eminent persons have examined a wide range of global challenges and presented innovative approaches for addressing them. The many initiatives that have been launched since the Millennium Declaration’s adoption—and the sense of urgency that has characterized them—reflect a keen awareness of the seriousness of those challenges. At the same time, they testify to the depth of the international commitment to bringing the vision of the Millennium Declaration to life. The United Nations High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change called for a new security consensus “between alliances that are frayed, between wealthy nations and poor, and among peoples mired in mistrust across an apparently widening abyss.” It highlighted the indivisibility of security, economic development and human freedom and the idea that “we all share responsibility for each other’s security.”⁽¹⁾  The Millennium Project has underscored the need for international cooperation to meet the Declaration’s development challenges and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.⁽²⁾  The International Labour Organization’s World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization has stressed the need for a more equitable set of rules and governance system to bring about a fair and inclusive globalization, which, it emphasized, is in turn crucially important to achieving the objectives of the Millennium Declaration.⁽³⁾  The Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy has similarly put forward a wide range of proposals and recommendations for how governments and institutions can shape international affairs in a way that makes globalization more equitable. Other panels and commissions engaged in related reflections include: the Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations-Civil Society Relations,⁽⁴⁾ the Commission on Human Security,⁽⁵⁾ the United Nations Development Programme’s Commission on the Private Sector and Development,⁽⁶⁾ the World Bank’s Global Programmes Evaluation,⁽⁷⁾ the International Task Force on Global Public Goods and the Global Commission on International Migration.

^1. A more secure world: our shared responsibility, Report of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, New York, 29 November 2004 (issued as document A/59/565).

^2. Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals,Millennium Project Report to the UN Secretary General, New York, 2005.

^3. “A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All,” World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, International Labour Organization, Geneva, 2004.4.

^4. “We the Peoples: Civil Society, the United Nations and Global Governance,” (A/58/817 and Corr.1), Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations-Civil Society Relations, June 2004.

^5. “Human Security Now: Protecting and Empowering People,” United Nations Commission on Human Security, August 2003.

^6. “Unleashing Entrepreneurship: Making Business Work for the Poor,” UNDP's Commission on the Private Sector and Development, Report to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, April 2004.

^7. “Addressing the Challenges of Globalization—An Independent Evaluation of the World Bank’s Approach to Global Programs”, World Bank Operations Evaluation Department, December 2004.