CAIRO: Following the conclusion of her three-day-visit to Egypt on Tuesday, Ann Veneman, Executive Director of Unicef said she was impressed that Egypt is well on track to achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015. The eight MDGs that include eradicating poverty, promoting universal primary education and equality and reducing child mortality by 2015 were signed onto by 189 countries at the UN Millennium summit in 2000. Veneman came to Egypt to discuss the country's progress in combating Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), bird flue and the specter of street children. Meetings with First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, private sector and government officials like Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, and Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Tantawi, as well as other ministers, left Veneman impressed with the support of the government and leading role of the First Lady in improving the lives of children. Egypt's impressive decline in its mortality rate that has already superseded the two-thirds reduction goal for 2015, as well as Egypt's improvement in public education and its ability to eradicate polio, make it a model for others to follow explained Veneman. This view was reaffirmed when Veneman was invited by the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood to visit a community girl's school where she was impressed with community partnership in ensuring education for their girls. Pleased with the decreasing trend in FGM, Veneman commended the efforts of the Grand Sheikh in publicly demeaning the practice as unreligious. While these achievements may be impressive, observers see education and eradication of FGM are but luxuries in a region where Iraqi and Palestinian children are struggling to survive, and question why Veneman had not been where her efforts are more needed. Veneman seems to have made more visits to Iraqi children as an Agricultural Secretary for the Bush administration than as head of Unicef where she was quoted as saying "children are going to school and life in Iraq seems to be making significant progress forward.
