The Millennium Development goals will take center stage this week as the United Nations convenes its General Assembly in New York. The meeting of nearly 140 Heads of State will focus on how the eight goals, agreed upon in 2000 and intended to end extreme poverty and suffering around the world, can be met by 2015.

In a conversation last week with David Lane, President and CEO of ONE, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to being a leader in the fight against global poverty through the lens of the MDGs, and made the case for why development is as important to our overall security as it is our humanitarian leadership around the world:

“We are doing this not just for moral purposes, although it is a tremendous moral mission to make the world a better place, but also because tackling the MDGs is fundamentally a part of a strategic vision of bringing the world together, and thereby enabling our own peace and prosperity over a longer period of time.”

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Shah goes on to detail some of the programs and reforms the Obama administration is backing when it comes to meeting the MDGs, like the Global Health Initiative and the accountability measures he hopes will transform the way the United States works with its global partners to bring about change in the state of poverty around the world.

At the USGLC’s annual conference on September 28^th, Shah will join Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, and Millennium Challenge Corporation CEO Daniel Yohannes for a roundtable discussion of the Administration’s new development policy.

If you haven’t already, RSVP for this important event today.