The United Nations secretary general urged the leaders to help the world’s poorest to end poverty at the inaugural address to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit in New York. “There is no global project more worthwhile. Let us send a strong message of hope. Let us keep the promise,” Ban Ki-moon said leaders not to deviate from the goals of MDGs.

He also asked the world leaders to stick to the time frame of MDGs commitment. “We must protect these advances, many of which are still fragile. And the clock is ticking, with much more to do,” the UN secretary general noted on Monday.

"Being true means addressing inequality, both among and within countries. Even in countries that have registered impressive gains, inequality eats away at social cohesion,” Ban stressed.

He called rich nations to honour the commitment to the poorer countries. “We should not balance budgets on the backs of the poor. We must not draw back from official development assistance – a lifeline of billions, for billions.”

“Recovery from the economic crisis should not mean a return to the flawed and unjust path that got us into trouble in the first place,” Ban commented.

The three – day UN MDGs summit opened on Monday with the objective to discuss the achievements made on the global commitment pledged in 2000  - ‘include slashing poverty, combating disease, fighting hunger, protecting the environment and boosting education – and to determine what else needs to be done to reach the goals by their target date of 2015.’

On Wednesday, the secretary general is expected to unveil a global strategy for improving women’s and children’s health. The minister for external affairs S M Krishna is scheduled to address the UN Summit on Wednesday.

However, the 2010 MDG award went to India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation (IBSA Fund) for South-South Cooperation.

“The Award recognizes the work of the three countries in using innovative approaches to share, replicate and scale up successful development experiences for combating poverty and hunger in other parts of the world through the IBSA Trust Fund,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) India in a press note said.

The IBSA runs projects in countries like Haiti, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Burundi, Palestine, Cambodia and Lao PDR.