6 30. Reaching the environmental sustainability goals set for 2015 will require concerted effort. The extraordinary accomplishment of reducing consumption of ozone-depleting substances by 97 per cent in the 20 years since the Montreal Protocol was ratified, shows what can be achieved with sustained global cooperation and the integration of sustainable development principles into national policy frameworks. We must now shift the focus to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The current economic crisis provides an opportunity to make needed changes by encouraging green growth and clean technologies. We must also preserve our forests and wildlife. We should be particularly concerned by the rising reports of species facing extinction in the developing world. 31. We must also address the impending global water shortage crisis. More than 1.2 billion people live under conditions of physical water scarcity. Northern Africa and Western Asia are under serious stress, as are some regions within large countries, especially in Asia. We must promote practices and invest in technologies designed to reduce water wastage and increase water reclamation. 32. At their 2005 Gleneagles summit meeting, leaders of the Group of Eight countries promised to increase annual global official development assistance flows by $50 billion (in 2004 terms) by 2010, and within this envelope, to more than double aid to Africa by increasing annual flows by $25 billion. To date, these pledges have not been met. Nevertheless, meeting earlier this year, the Group of Twenty and Group of Eight reaffirmed previous commitments to increase aid, including the Gleneagles commitments, and to help countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals. These and additional resources will be necessary if world leaders are to address the growing needs of low-income countries. 33. For our part, the United Nations system is developing a comprehensive system-wide crisis response in support of national development strategies and plans to put into place a Global Impact and Vulnerability Alert System that will track the impact of global crises on the poor and most vulnerable people. Concrete measures such as these over the rest of the year will be crucial if we are to weather the current crisis and continue to make timely progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. 2. The special needs of Africa
34. Over the past decade, Africa has achieved impressive rates of economic expansion and growth, reaching an average annual growth in gross domestic product of 5.9 per cent during 2004–2007. However, the global economic crisis could reverse these trends. 35. According to the World economic situation and prospects as of mid-2009, a sharp decline in Africa’s
Yearbook of the United Nations, 2009 average annual growth rate from 6 per cent during 2004–2008 to just 0.9 per cent is expected for 2009. Against this backdrop, unemployment and precarious employment are on the rise as lower export earnings and a decrease in government revenues are affecting all economic activity. In the absence of comprehensive social safety nets, this will severely impact people’s livelihoods and thus endanger the timely achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. 36. Over the past year the United Nations system has been able to strengthen its support for the African development agenda in general and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development in particular. In July 2008, the Millennium Development Goals Africa Steering Group, which brings together the leaders of the African Union Commission, the Africa Development Bank Group, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, the Islamic Development Bank Group, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank and the United Nations, launched at the eleventh African Union Summit a comprehensive and fully costed set of recommendations on the key actions the international system could take to support Africa’s accelerated achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The Organization is working steadfastly to see these recommendations financed and implemented. It has also made steady progress in improving the effectiveness and coherence of United Nations programme delivery in Cape Verde, Mozambique, Rwanda and the United Republic of Tanzania, where pilot joint programmes are being adopted. 37. Nevertheless, as the year progresses, there is a danger that deteriorating economic conditions will give rise to political tensions. We have already seen food riots in several African countries and a troubling re-emergence of unconstitutional changes of government. In Chad and Somalia, internal crises are reaching new levels of gravity, threatening to destabilize the region. 38. The international community must help Africa tackle the crisis. World leaders should adhere to the renewed commitments they made at the General Assembly’s high-level meeting on Africa’s development needs, held in September 2008, and through the adoption of the political declaration on Africa’s development needs in Assembly resolution 63/1. 39. As part of Africa’s growing architecture of institutions in peace and security, the African Peer Review Mechanism, the work of the African Union Peace and Security Council, the African Union’s early warning system, the African Standby Force and the Pan-African Parliament are important. The steadily expanding strategic relationship between the United Nations and the African Union, particularly in the area of peacekeeping, is a positive development as is