Chairperson, obviously all this challenges us in terms of our oversight role. As leaders of South Africa and indeed the leaders of the world, when we adopted the Millennium Development Goals in the year 2000 we fundamentally committed ourselves to making the world a better place. Eleven years later, despite the great misfortunes we have to contend with as global citizens, we remain convinced that the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, represent the pivotal global vision of our times.
There is an author by the name of John C Maxwell who talks about this vision. He says:
The vision begins with one person, but it is only accomplished by many people.
I therefore believe that our presence here today epitomises yet another collective effort towards further championing this global vision, not only in thought but also in action. During our consultative seminar on the MDGs last month it became very clear that together we can certainly do more to further advance the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Today we present to Parliament the report of the consultative seminar on the Millennium Development Goals that took place on 5 and 6 September 2011. This report represents yet another major achievement as we seek to find ways and means of achieving the MDGs within the legislative sector's context.
There is no doubt that the consultative seminar gave us yet another opportunity for reflection on the path we have travelled in seeking to achieve the MDGs. In the process, and as recorded in South Africa's 2010 country report on the Millennium Development Goals, we have noted with pride the progress achieved thus far regarding the implementation of the MDGs. We have also noted with a sense of duty that challenges still lie ahead as we head towards the 2015 reporting process.
We believe that meaningful oversight work regarding the implementation of the MDGs is imperative in ensuring that our government is able to deliver on its global commitments for the benefit of our local communities. In the context of our respective mandates as partners for social change, Parliament, and the provincial legislatures too, have a formidable role to play in the achievement of the eight MDGs. We therefore applaud the collective efforts of the National Assembly and the NCOP in ensuring that the entire legislative sector collaborates in contributing towards the achievement of the MDGs within the context of effective oversight.
The Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration has recently been talking a lot about the collaboration of institutions as it conducts its oversight on major strategic and political tasks. The buzz words "collaboration of institutions" become critical because it is only when more institutions come together that you can realise a greater impact in terms of our role of oversight. We believe that such a task will make us work better and smarter as we seek to achieve our major objective: holding government accountable in fulfilling its global commitment for the benefit of the local communities. [Interjections.]