UN General Assembly
2001

and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, was a tremendous effort towards sustainable world development. The most important outcome of the Conference was the adoption of Agenda 21, which covers in depth the topics of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy and the progressive deterioration of ecosystems. Agenda 21 also encourages us to focus our attention on the financial resources required to promote sustainable development at the national level, with the goal of creating a corresponding measurement system for it that can be easily interpreted. This is an ongoing and important task that we cannot neglect. The United Nations Conference on Financing for Development will be held in Monterrey, Mexico, in March 2002. We believe that the Conference offers a magnificent opportunity to reduce the abyss between the rich countries of the North and the poor countries of the South in both the practical and conceptual aspects of this issue. In the course of last month’s meetings of the Conference’s Preparatory Committee, opinions with substantial differences were expressed, and these must