2007 Annual Ministerial Review

The Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) is one of the two new functions of the Economic and Social Council. It was mandated by the Heads of State and Government at the 2005 World Summit as a vehicle to step up efforts to bring the international community back on track in meeting the Millennium Development Goals by the 2015 target date.

The first AMR took place on 3-4 July 2007 at the United Nations Palais des Nations in Geneva. As a global high-level forum with broad-based participation, the AMR has the potential to serve as a powerful new tool in advancing the implementation of the UN development agenda. It provides a forum for an exchange of lessons learned and successful practices and approaches which merit scaling-up of development efforts.

In July 2007, the AMR focused on “Strengthening efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger, including through the global partnership for development”. In 2008, the AMR assessed the progress made in the implementation of internationally agreed goals and commitments related to sustainable development. In 2009, the AMR focused on implementing the agreed global public health goals.

At the 2007 AMR, participants had the opportunity to learn from policy makers, practitioners and academics through the roundtable discussions, national voluntary presentations and general debate, about strategies and approaches to effectively reduce poverty and exchange lessons learned about overcoming the obstacles encountered in implementing national development strategies. Participants included Member States, UN System Organizations, other major institutional stakeholders as well as non-governmental organizations, private sector representatives and academics.

The national voluntary presentations comprise an important element of the AMR. At the first AMR, Ministers and senior officials of six developing countries (Bangladesh, Barbados, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Ethiopia and Ghana) presented the progress their countries had made in formulating and implementing their national development strategies.

Two high-level roundtables on the annual theme of the AMR were also organized. They focused on “Ending the cycle of food crises: cultivating a home-grown green revolution in Africa” and “Poverty eradication – Making it happen”.

The theme for the 2008 AMR was "Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to sustainable development". The theme for the 2009 AMR was "Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to global public health".