UN:AFRICAN COUNTRIES are lagging behind targets to dramatically reduce global poverty by 2015, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon warned yesterday, as he urged developed countries to spend $72 billion (€48.7 billion) a year to help the continent reach its development goals, writes Mary FitzgeraldForeign Affairs Correspondent, at the United Nations
Mr Ban told delegates attending a high-level meeting on Africa's development needs that, while the sum may appear daunting, it was affordable, pointing to the estimated $267 billion spent by the world's richest nations last year on agricultural subsidies alone.
"In this context, the cost of solving the food crisis, addressing global warming and pulling millions out of extreme poverty in Africa looks like good value," he said at the meeting, held on the eve of the opening of the UN General Assembly's annual debate.
As it stands, Mr Ban warned, not a single African country appeared likely to achieve all eight UN Millennium Development Goals, aimed at reducing poverty and hunger, and improving education and health.
But the secretary general, who has made the development goals the main theme of this year's gathering of representatives from the UN's 192 member states, said he believed the targets remained achievable.
Mr Ban's call comes amid concerns that the current turmoil in global markets could affect the aid budgets of the world's wealthiest donor nations.
Last week, Mr Ban expressed concern that the financial upheaval could have a "very serious negative impact" on prospects for achieving the development goals by 2015.
Minister of State for Overseas Development Peter Power told a roundtable discussion at UN headquarters that the development challenge in Africa was of the utmost importance to the State, given that 85 per cent of its bilateral assistance goes to the continent.
Referring to Mr Ban's warning that African countries were falling behind their development targets, Mr Power told The Irish Times it was a "source of enormous concern", given Ireland's commitment. "It is frankly disappointing that, while other countries, particularly Asia, are moving rapidly ahead, Africa isn't," he added.
In an address to the opening meeting, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking on behalf of the EU, told delegates "the globalised world needs a developed Africa", and said the EU would honour its pledges to assist the continent.
But in a sign of western unease over the nature of China's increasing engagement with Africa, Mr Sarkozy warned, without mentioning Beijing by name, against new donors helping to "set the stage for a new debt crisis" in the continent.