Efforts to meet international development goals must focus on empowering women, Deputy UN Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said in a speech delivered at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "Empowering women is not just an end in itself; it is a prerequisite for reaching all of the Millennium Development Goals ­ our common vision to build a better world in the 21st century," she said of the targets, known as MDGs, that aim to slash a host of global ills by 2015.