British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Tony Blair's recent successor, gave a speech at the UN headquarters on Tuesday, appealing to world leaders to hasten progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Brown discussed the immediate need for international unity to end extreme poverty by 2015, as a new 2007 UN progress report on the Goals finds that the world is not on course to meet the objectives of the 2000 Millennium Declaration.

"It was a remarkable moment --- the whole world coming together as one, the leadership of the poorest countries to be empowered by the obligations accepted by the richest. All of us accepting our shared responsibilities to work together for change. But seven years on it is already clear that our pace is too slow; our direction too uncertain; our vision at risk."

12 world leaders and 20 business leaders are backing Brown's plan to bring together government officials, the private sector, civil society and volunteers at a global meeting on the Goals at the UN next year. Brown called the lack of progress a "development emergency" and implored the world to take collaborative action to empower the poor, to save the thousands of children who die needlessly, to protect the environment from degradation and to meet the MDGs and bring about the change that can alter the lives of billions.

"We did not make the commitment to the Millennium Development Goals only for us to be remembered as the generation that betrayed promises rather than honoured them and undermined trust that promises can ever be kept."

Brown also drew attention to the timeline of broken pledges and promises.

"The world did not come together in New York in 2000, come together again in Doha in 2001, in Johannesburg and Monterrey in 2002, in Gleneagles and New York in 2005 and Heiligendamm in 2007 to make, re-make and reaffirm promises, for us then to break them."

At the halfway point to the Millennium Development Goals, Gordon Brown's call to action is a timely reminder to the world about its responsibility to the poor and the potential human cost of not cooperating to meet the Goals by 2015. With the support of important leaders from countries such as India, France and Brazil and business leaders such as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Bechtel Chairman Riley Bechtel, the renewed global initiative could garner the attention it deserves and needs to eliminate extreme poverty.

"The greatest of challenges now demands the boldest of initiatives. To address the worst of poverty we urgently need to summon up the best efforts of humanity. "