UN chief urges rich countries to double aid to Africa

UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged rich countries here yesterday to honor their 2005 pledge to double their annual aid to Africa, which is lagging behind the rest of the world in meeting poverty reduction goals by 2015.
"I appeal to all donors to implement the 2005 Gleneagles summit to more than double aid to Africa (to bring it to 50 billion dollars)," he told the meeting, being held on the eve of the opening of the General Assembly's annual general debate.
At their 2005 summit in the Scottish town of Gleneagles, G8 countries -- the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia -- pledged to boost their aid to Africa with an extra 25 billion dollars (17 billion euros) per year by 2010.
Since then several revisions have lowered the figure to 21.8 billion dollars, and according to the UN and the AU development aid has only increased by about a quarter of that amount.
And the recent meltdown of the global financial industry that led to a proposed 700-billion-dollar US government bailout is likely to make donors even less willing to offer more help.
In a report unveiled September 11, Ban warned that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed by world leaders eight years ago might not be met by the 2015 target date, particularly in Africa.
The study noted that total net aid from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries came to only 0.28 percent of their combined Gross National Income, as opposed to the UN target of 0.7 percent, he noted.
"We now have a good idea of what is needed," Ban told representatives of more than 160 countries, among them French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, here Monday.