By Rich Bowden:

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addressed a UN health conference in Melbourne by videolink saying countries were falling short of some of their health goals with the focus on women’s and children’s health.

Delegates at the three-day health summit, attended by over 1400 delegates from 70 countries, heard discussion on the world’s progress towards achievement of eight of the health-related UN’s millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The gathering took place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Ban told the conference earlier this week that more needed to be done and called on attendees to “keep the promise” of the goals set in 2000.

“We still have some distance to go,” the UN secretary-general told the opening session. ”I welcome your focus on women’s and children’s health, this is the area where we are most behind.”

Mr Ban called for NGO’s and aid organisations to lead the moves towards the MDGs, slated for the year 2015.

“You understand like no others the daily challenges faced by the most vulnerable, you have the passion and networks to spread our messages far and wide,” he said. ”We need to hear your voices.”

Kiyo Akasaka, UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said at the closing ceremony that while there was some frustration at lack of progress in some areas, the importance lies in sticking with the targets and increasing efforts towards achieving the goals in the next five years.

“This is not the time to question the validity of the MDGs themselves, but rather a time to roll up our sleeves and do what is necessary to attain them, and beyond that, to look at the question of ensuring that they are sustainable after 2015,” he stated at the closing ceremony.

The conference has taken place just weeks before world leaders are summoned by Mr Ban to New York to discuss progress towards the MDGs.

Tags: Ban Ki-moon, mdg, melbourne development, millennium development goals, un mdg, united nations mdg