From 28 to 30 September 2005, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is hosting an international conference in The Hague, The Netherlands, to build capacity among stakeholders in the north and south to implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This conference is the culmination of five regional conferences held in Burkina Faso, Nepal, Peru, Nicaragua and Uganda between May and August 2005.

SNV is organising its conference on "Mobilising Local Capacities for the Millennium Goals" shortly after the UN's World Summit in September. Its main aim is to translate the commitments made at the Summit into actual implementation on the ground, based on the themes, ideas, and concrete recommendations that came out of the regional conferences organised by SNV. The conference looks at the concrete steps needed to build capacity to implement the MDGs. Particular themes to be discussed are local participatory monitoring, enhancing the effective role of local authorities, implementing MDGs in a situation of conflict and overcoming inequality, including gender inequality.

The conference shall open with introductions from Dutch Minister of Development Cooperation Agnes van Ardenne, President Mkapa from Tanzania and Professor Jeffrey Sachs of the Millennium Project. The programme consists of plenaries and workshops to encourage networking and to stimulate participants to come up with innovative ways to push forward the MDGs between 2005 and 2015. It will also create an arena in which key actors from civil society, local authorities and private sector in the north and south can form networks and alliances for future work.