UN General Assembly
2001

Summit in 2000; and the special session of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS in 2001. The question is: How much of the outcome of these conferences has been implemented with respect to poverty alleviation, the empowerment of women, health, education, children and the elderly, trade liberalization, economic cooperation, and the sharing and transfer of technology? Could it be that these conferences and special sessions promised more than they could deliver? Promising too much is as bad as doing too little. The fight against poverty underpins all of those things. To feed the hungry is both a divine and a social imperative. Thus, the international community is particularly concerned that the International Conference on Financing for Development to be held next year in Mexico and the World Summit for Sustainable Development to be held in South Africa, both so important for small States, should yield positive results. The Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States is still a major and unfulfilled component of the process of the United Nations