IANS/United Nations

Khil Raj Regmi, chairman of Nepalese Council of Ministers, made the statement while addressing the annual high-level debate of the UN General Assembly, which entered its fifth day on Saturday.

“There is a need to build on the foundation of the MDGs, leaving nobody behind in the global development efforts,” he said. “Any new development agenda that does not keep the elimination of extreme poverty at the center stage loses the spirit of
sustainability.”

The 193-member General Assembly has asked all the UN member-states to set the stage for the post-2015 development agenda, which will be hammered out next year to define the global development in 2015 and beyond.

“It is an irony that one-eighth of world population has to live without enough food at a time when 150% of the earth’s annual regenerative capacity is being consumed in total,” he said. “Nearly 1bn people will still be forced to live in extreme poverty
by 2015.”

“Looking at this unfair and unjust scenario, one can hardly envision global sustainability without a system of an economic growth and development that ensures the progress and wellbeing of people on this planet in an equitable, inclusive and
judicious manner,” he said.

“We can hardly realise sustainable development when pervasive poverty, unsustainable consumption and production patters and spiraling environmental degradation are allowed to continue,” he added.