Cape Town — The speaker of the National Assembly (parliament) of Angola, Roberto de Almeida Tuesday here urged every politician and the civil society worldwide to mobilise the best efforts and speed up development, in order to reduce poverty in accordance with the millennium goals.

According to Roberto de Almeida, another condition to reduce poverty is the implementation of the pact established in 2002, in Monterrey, foreseeing a new global partnership between developed and developing countries.

"This partnership should be especially based on national development strategies and on the assistance of international donors, taking into account the range of challenges, which are of everyone's responsibility, demanding from the poor the necessary reforms and from the rich the assistance to these efforts", defended the official.

Speaking at the plenary session of the 118th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Angolan National Assembly speaker considered the goal of reducing poverty as everyone's responsibility.

This responsibility especially engages politicians, who have the collective duty to respect and defend the principles of human dignity, equality and social cohesion worldwide.

The top Angolan parliamentarian also defended the need to focus on the progressive removal of economic, social and political obstacles that hinder real equality between citizens, therefore contributing to the reinforcement of the political, economic and social development of the world.

Since 2000, the millennium goals unite the international community towards poverty and inequality, and the new century has inspired world leaders to turn talks into actions, in order to reduce poverty and diseases by 2015, said Roberto de Almeida. "Eradicating extreme poverty, reach universal primary education and promote gender equality are amongst the goals to be achieved", he explained, adding that there is also a collective engagement to reduce infant mortality and improve maternal health, combat diseases and guarantee environmental sustainability. The conference, opened Sunday evening, is expected to end next April 18.