Backing off the promises

Bread for the World has issued a press release about the World Summit next week, which will be the largest gathering of world leaders in history, and which is supposed to focus on improving implementation of the five-year-old Millennium Development Goals (eight objectives covering poverty, sexual discrimination, hunger, primary education, child mortality, maternal health, the environment and disease). If you've been wondering how the US's recent effort to disavow the Millennium Development Goals entirely relates to the US's commitments at July's G8, they can tell you. Call-in information in reponse is at Church World Service. Incidentally, to get a comparative sense of how this move looks to the rest of the world, you might visit EUROPE CARES, a project of the entire European Union publicizing what they are doing post G-8 in fulfillment of their promises on the Millennium Development Goals.