UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urges rich countries to help poor by AP / BBC News / Reuters 4:53pm 10th Jun, 2005   June 10, 2005    "UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urges rich countries to help poor", by Edith M. Lederer. (Associated Press)    UNITED NATIONS: - Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday called 2005 "a make-or-break moment" for the world's poor and urged all rich nations to follow the European Union and boost aid, improve trade and provide debt relief.    With more than 1 billion people living on less than $1 a day, 815 million having too little to eat, and more than 115 million children not going to elementary school, he said U.N. development goals won't be met unless world leaders take "concrete steps" this year.    Annan didn't single out any countries but his message was clearly aimed at the United States and Japan, which have so far refused to set timetables to increase aid to 0.7 percent of national incomes -- as all 25 EU nations have pledged to do by 2015. The United States currently contributes about 0.17 percent while Japan next year will spend 0.21 percent.    The secretary-general told a news conference that the next few months offer three "critical opportunities" for the world to demonstrate its commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals which range from halving extreme poverty to ensuring primary education for all children and stemming the HIV/AIDS pandemic, all by 2015.    It is vital, he said, that all world leaders seize the opportunities of the U.N. General Assembly meeting later this month on financing development, the July summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, and the U.N. summit in September "to decide on concrete actions which will help us reach the Millennium Development Goals."    "That is why 2005 and the summit are a make-or-break moment for the MDGs - and for the world's poor," Annan said, using the initials of the goals.    The secretary-general said this year's summit will be "much harder" than the Millennium Summit in 2000 which set the goals, and there are already clear indications that getting rich countries to increase their commitments is going to be difficult.    British Prime Minister Tony Blair went to see President Bush on Tuesday to seek a writeoff of impoverished nations' debt and a doubling of aid to Africa. Bush inched towards Blair's position on writing off debt but the British prime minister said tough negotiations are needed ahead of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.    U.N. Undersecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Jose Antonio Ocampo, when asked whether the 2015 goals can be reached with a very significant increase from the United States, said "the U.S. has been increasing aid in recent years in a substantial way. But I can only restate that the United Nations hopes ... that all developed countries will commit to the 0.7 percent target by 2015," he said.    © Copyright 2005 Associated Press.    9 June, 2005    "Last-ditch push for poverty deal", by Steve Schifferes (BBC News)    .. At a press conference called by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) , a global coalition of organisations representing 150 million people in 72 countries, spokesperson South African Kumi Naidoo, told the BBC that he believed that growing pressure from the public is beginning to have an effect on governments.    Non government organisations want the finance ministers to agree to debt relief for all poor countries, to back calls for the doubling of foreign aid to $100bn per year, and to support plans for changes in the world trading system that would cut subsidies enjoyed by rich world farmers.    Disagreements among the rich    The finance ministers are meeting amid deep-seated disagreements over key proposals to boost aid to Africa.    Despite a personal plea from Tony Blair, who travelled to Washington earlier in the week to enlist the support of President George W Bush, the US is unlikely to support the doubling aid flows to poor countries to help them meet UN targets on poverty reduction.    The UK plan for an International Financing Facility, which would issue $50bn in bonds against future aid flows, is now likely to proceed only on a limited basis, perhaps supported by other EU countries but not by the US or Japan - the world's two biggest economies. Nor does the US favour a French proposal to tax international airline travel to fund additional aid flows.    Debt deal?    Debt campaigners are concerned that only 27 poor countries have qualified for debt relief and would benefit from any initiative - they argue that 62 countries, including large debtors like Nigeria and Indonesia, should be included.    Campaign building up    Meanwhile, the non-governmental organisations announced further plans for demonstrations around the world during the week leading up to the G8 summit in July.    These range from protest marches and rallies on 1 July in France, Italy and Germany, to a global white band day throughout Africa on 16 June. And the coalition now plans to mount a demonstration on the opening day of the G8 summit, 6 July, as well as the march and rally planned on Saturday 2 July in Edinburgh, and the Live 8 Concerts around the world on that date.    The 27 countries who have qualified for debt relief under the HIPC (highly-indebted poor countries initiative) are: Benin, Bolivia, Burkino Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Malawi, Mail, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.    The 14 countries who theoretically qualify for debt relief but have not allowed to join so far are: Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Comoros, Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Mynamar, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Vietnam, Yemen.    The Jubilee Debt coalition argues that another 21 countries should qualify for full debt relief: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Georgia, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Korea, Kyrgyz Republic, Lesotho, Nepal, Moldova, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, and Zimbabwe.    08 Jun 2005    "Charities sceptical on Blair's African funds deal", by Sumeet Desai. (Reuters)    British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the Group of Eight nations are close to a historic deal to lift Africa out of poverty, but aid agencies worried on Wednesday that any agreement might fall short of what is needed.    Britain has said its presidency of the G8 this year should be judged on what is done to help the impoverished continent where millions die each year from disease and hunger, and has demanded that poor countries' debt be cancelled and aid doubled.    But as G8 finance ministers readied to meet in London this week to lay the groundwork for a summit in July in Gleneagles, Scotland, campaigners expressed concern that Britain's ambitious targets may not be met.    "This will be a make-up operation where they say everything is fine and next year we'll have millions more dead because of the ineptitude of rich governments," said Francesco Oddone, economist at Eurodad, a network of 48 development organisations.    In Washington, Blair and President George W. Bush said on Tuesday they were close to agreement on a plan that would cancel up to 100 percent of poor African countries' multilateral debt. But the two leaders failed to agree on boosting aid.    FIGHTING CORRUPTION    Bush and Blair both said that assistance should be given only to those countries ready to tackle corruption and Blair's spokesman said on Wednesday the debt cancellation could benefit around 25 of the poorest countries.    "It's a step forward because it looks as if the U.S. is ready to put in more money but it's a narrower list of countries that will be helped," said Romilly Greenhill, policy officer at charity ActionAid. "We think about 62 countries need help."    Africans welcomed the moves while urging the West to examine its own role in creating the problem in the first place.    The prospect of total debt forgiveness for Africa's poorest nations answers a decades-old call by African leaders who argue the debts -- some of which were of dubious origin -- divert limited funds away from education, health and infrastructure.    "It is evidence that the G8 leaders are willing to put their political prestige behind debt relief for Africa. That is very encouraging," said Udoma Udo Udoma, a Nigerian senator who led a group of lawmakers to lobby creditors for relief last month. "The link to democracy, good governance and anti-corruption is also a challenge to those of us who want debt relief to put our houses in order."    Sub-Saharan Africa has a total of $230 billion in external debt and pays $12 billion a year on servicing. Much of the debt is owed to multilateral organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, but there is also bilateral debt owed to members of Paris Club and London Club.    WHAT ABOUT AID?    The finance ministers this week will have to thrash out how to pay for any debt relief deal.    British finance minister Gordon Brown has proposed selling International Monetary Fund gold reserves to write off poor countries' debts to the international lender but this has found little support.    Washington also had no truck with Brown's other big idea -- an International Finance Facility (IFF) -- which could raise an extra $50 billion in aid money up front by issuing bonds using future development budgets as collateral.    But Britain is determined to launch at least a pilot IFF to fund vaccinations, even without U.S. support.    Aid agencies said they hoped that getting debt relief out of the way at this weekend's meeting might keep the door open for negotiations on increasing aid at Gleneagles.    Public pressure will remain intense. Irish rocker Bob Geldof has announced plans for five star-studded "Live8" concerts on July 2 in Europe and the United States.    And tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to converge on the Scottish capital of Edinburgh at the start of the July 6-8 summit.    "We don't want to see a scaling back of expectations. We want Blair and Brown to hold the line on wanting $50 billion," said Max Lawson, policy adviser at Oxfam.    (Additional reporting by Mike Peacock and Katherine Baldwin; Tom Ashby in Lagos, Glenn Somerville in Washington, Luke McCann in Ottawa)
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