Having just concluded a successful MDG Summit. I would like to congratulate the Secretary General, His Excellency Ban Ki-moon for his leadership, dedication and commitment to the work of the Organization and for the new momentum he is bringing towards the achievement of the MDGs.

The Maldives' transition to a democracy is accompanied by our evolution from an abuser of human rights to a staunch advocate for them. We are proud of what we have achieved, but are the first to recognize that there is no shortage of challenges that require our immediate attention.

The Maldives has made great strides in eliminating poverty, in education, and in improving mortality rates among both mothers and infants. However, we have yet to make significant gains in areas for the empowerment of women.

Most important among the challenges facing our world is the attainment of the MDGs by the year 2015. We know that many among us have exerted huge and outstanding efforts to that end.

Botswana welcomes the important milestones achieved in the strengthening of the UN's operational activities for development, improvement of funding for development related activities, as well as strengthening the institutional framework for the gender architecture through the creation of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women.

In line with our commitment towards MDG 3, my Government has tabled before the Papua New Guinea legislature а proposed legislation to reserve 22 seats for women in the National Parliament.

Рарua New Guinea applauds the commitment of US$40 billion for poverty alleviation, especially to improve the health of children and women. It is our hope that this is а new resource envelope and not repackaged old commitments.

As we intensify our poverty reduction efforts at home we plan to focus more on issues of gender equality and the empowerment of women as the critical part of success. My government is confident that the newly created UN-Women will be an important partner in this endeavor.

On our part, my Government has recommitted itself, at the summit, to the acceleration of our efforts towards poverty reduction, gender equality and environmental sustainability, the three MDGs where we are lagging behind.

In advancing the discussions on system-wide coherence, we support the need to improve the operations of the UN at the country level to ensure that the system can appropriately respond to the needs of recipient countries and to prevent the unnecessary imposition of undue conditionalities.