At Innovative Financing MDG Side-meeting, Queen Rania Says Education Must Remain Front and Center

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department- New York) In Her remarks at the Innovative financing MDG side-meeting, at the United Nations head quarters in New York, Queen Rania stressed the importance of education and women empowerment as essentials for achieving all eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The meeting featured panels on the success of innovative financing in health, the financial transaction tax and new sectors for innovative financing,

The Queen is in New York as part of a working trip with His Majesty King Abdullah II.

Her Majesty stressed the importance of the second and third MDGs, as the two goals that “could underpin success in all other development challenges”.

Elaborating on the idea that 2+3=8, Her Majesty explained: “I want you to think about this chunk: MDG 2, universal primary education, and MDG 3, gender equality and women’s empowerment. On the one hand, they represent a quarter of the MDGs, on the other, they represent the whole” adding that “if every child around the world was in school…and every woman and girl was educated and active in their communities…then 2+3 could underpin success in all other development challenges.”

Her Majesty added that education beats poverty, can reduce the spread of diseases such as HIV-AIDS, and reduce maternal mortality rates, which is are some serious threats that are faced by the developing world countries today.

Her Majesty thanked the more than 300 attendees for their efforts, and encouraged innovative and new schemes for securing aid and funding for education development, stressing that “education is an emergency unfolding virtually unnoticed by all. All except the 70 million out-of-school-children, and the 300 million receiving sub-standard education worldwide”.

The meeting also included remarks by Mr Seiji Maehara, Foreign Minister, Japan; Mr Bernard Kouchner, Foreign Minister, France; Mrs; Mr. Charles Michel, Minister of Development and Cooperation, Belgium; Mr. Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development and Mr Angel Gurria, OECD Secretary-General.