Following the success of previous annual U21 meetings and responding to the U21 Health Science Group's call to engage with the United Nations in training and education for the Millennium Development Goals,  the 2007 U21 Symposium on challenges and progress in the realisation of the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

The Symposium, which took place at McGill University, Montreal on 19 April 2007, brought together a cross-section of experts from the U21 consortium and representatives from the international development community (UN, IDRC) to examine progress towards measurable improvements by 2015 across eight areas

• poverty and hunger eradication
• primary education
• gender equality
• child mortality
• maternal health,
• diseases (e.g. HIV/AIDS, malaria)
• environmental sustainability
• global development partnership.

The presentations identified binding constraints as well as facilitating factors at various levels.

Impediments to poverty reduction and equal access to primary education were evident at the individual level: absence of child care for mothers working in the global economy and lack of economic empowerment for women, as shown in multi-country research by Jody Heymann (McGill University) and Rae Lesser Blumberg (University of Virginia).

Regional and local successes in reducing infant mortality (Tanzania), eradicating disease (sleeping sickness in Uganda) and providing safe water (many regions) were associated with research-based interventions, decentralized implementation and attention to local capabilities and cost effective solutions, as well as public-private partnerships, according to presentations by Rohinton Medhora (IDRC), Sue Welburn (University of Edinburgh) and John Langford (University of Melbourne). At the mezzo-level, reasonably good governance was cited as a facilitator for effective MDG interventions.

Impediments to sustainable development and poverty reduction also stem from systemic-level techno-institutional lock-ins, social conflicts and jurisdictional disputes, as in the case of climate change, which requires reframing and synthesizing issues to mobilize collective action towards mitigation or solution, according to presentations by Michael Byers (University of British Columbia) and Lennart Olsson (Lund).

Hanifa Mezoui (United Nations, Economic & Social Affairs) identified civil society as the bridge between the United Nations and the people it serves to meet the MDG. She emphasized the importance of ethics and cultural sensitivity in achieving the MDG.

Knowledge translation emerged as a common theme in both the presentations and round table discussions: conducting good research at the local community level to design effective policies, integrating university and foundation research into community practice, translating national policies into effective programs for local groups at greatest risk, and developing pedagogical tools and educational programs to support the MDG among researchers students and civil society.

The symposium round table discussions indicated the U21 Network has the collaborative potential as well as problem-solving research and educational capabilities to engage in wider global partnerships with regional, national, and international policy makers to contribute to attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

Click here to read more about the speakers and their presentations.