November 1st, 2007
Google, Cisco lend a hand to UN's fight against poverty
With the help of Google and Cisco, the UN is launching a new website to help track how the world is doing in fighting poverty and development goals. The site includes Google Earth map and satellite imagery as well as statistics on how a range of countries are doing at meeting the UN’s Millenium Development Goals, AP reports.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Thursday’s launch “crucial” because for the first time all information on the U.N. goals, known as the MDGs, will be available in one place “for all who seek it, with a few simple clicks of the mouse.”
“For the first time in history, the world has at its disposal the means to cut poverty in half in the span of a generation,” the secretary-general said. “But ultimately, achieving the MDGs is a matter of political will. There is no silver bullet, but the resources, knowledge and tools for achieving the goals do exist.”
At the launch, Cisco Senior vice president Carlos Dominguez said technology and human ingenuity “can effectively guide expertise and resources to those in need while highlighting the success of others in reaching these important goals.”
Google’s chief technologist for maps, Michael Jones, said countries “can see successes and celebrate those, and observe failures or shortfalls … and redouble their country’s commitment to pursue those efforts. So it’s very exciting for us.”
