Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Address World Leaders in Mexico at the International Conference on Financing for Development

ATLANTA, GA….Following The Carter Center's Development Cooperation Forum in which leaders said the world is not on target for cutting global poverty in half by 2015, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will address international leaders Tuesday at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico.

"The Carter Center's Forum called attention to the urgent need to move beyond rhetoric and put into action a plan to mobilize the resources necessary for a serious assault on poverty," President Carter said. "The Monterrey conference provides an opportunity for wealthier countries to demonstrate their political commitment to helping their poorer neighbors."

The Carter Center's Development Cooperation Forum, held February 21-22, 2002 in Atlanta, called attention to the lack of progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals-targets which include decreasing by half the 1.2 billion people living on less than a dollar a day and ensuring all children are enrolled in primary school, by 2015. These and six other goals were unanimously endorsed by the September 2000 U.N. Millennium General Assembly in New York.

At the Forum, President Carter, the presidents of three developing countries, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, United Nations Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, and other leaders from civil society and the private sector called on wealthy countries to commit more financial resources to combat poverty. "A more just and fair world benefits all," President Carter said. "Reducing poverty is in the national interest of all countries. Poverty weakens democracy and its institutions - we cannot have genuine human security for all until poverty is eradicated."

In Monterrey, President Carter will meet with finance and development ministers from some 60 countries to discuss the need to achieve global human security through greater development assistance, debt relief, fair trade, increased foreign investment, and better managed domestic resources.

Editor's Note: President Carter will hold a press conference on Tuesday, March 19, 2002, at 4:30 p.m. in the Press Center on the ground floor of the CINTERMEX Convention and Exhibition Center. The director of The Carter Center's Global Development Initiative, Ed Cain, will be available throughout the conference for interviews on the issues of global poverty and development. Please call Mr. Cain at cell 678-640-3338.