The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged world leaders not to use the current economic crisis as a pretext to scale down efforts to fulfil the MillenÂnium Development Goals (MDGs).
Speaking in a video message, recorded to coincide with this week’s United Nations (UN) summit on the MDGs in New York, Dr Williams said that, although progress had been made in some areas ”” for example, reducing the spread of diseases such as malaria and HIV ”” “we are all bound to be painfully conÂscious that there is a very long way to go” in achieving the goals.
“This is not just about ideals in a vacuum: this is about the lives of millions of billions of people; and our call is still to make a real difference to them.
“It’s quite easy, especially in the light of the last couple of years, to think that we haven’t really got the resources for this after all.