African Leaders Want Aid Pledges Fulfilled

(Presstv)--African leaders have voiced alarm that the international financial crisis threatens efforts to fight poverty in poor nations. During a UN meeting on Africa’s development needs on Monday, the leaders told the developed countries to honour their aid commitments to help it tackle hunger and poverty.

Africa is in danger of falling far short of meeting a series of dramatic poverty-reduction goals set by the United Nations in 2000. The head of the 53-nation African Union also warned that they would not be able to get on track without help from the global community.

African Union Chairman and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said he was concerned the financial turmoil in global markets would escalate, but rich countries had made aid promises to Africa that they should keep. ‘We want the developed nations to perform their moral obligation of assisting the poor,’ Kikwete told a news conference.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged concerted global action, warning that Africa was falling behind in goals to drastically reduce poverty by 2015 under the Millennium Development Goals, set by world leaders in 2000. He said soaring food and fuel prices and the effects of climate change were new challenges facing Africa and its efforts to tackle poverty, hunger and disease.

At a summit in Scotland in 2005, the major industrialized powers agreed to increase yearly aid to developing countries by $50 billion by 2010 compared to 2004, and to channel $25 billion of the increase to Africa.

But Ban said in a recent report that rich donor nations have failed to deliver on their promises and must increase aid by $18 billion a year—and of that, $7.3 billion would have to go to Africa.

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