DENMARK PROPOSES UN SUMMIT TO BOOST FINANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT

DENMARK PROPOSES UN SUMMIT TO BOOST FINANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT
New York, Oct 2 2007 8:00PM
The United Nations should organize a summit on the progress so far towards the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the need to increase financing for development in poor countries, <"http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/62/2007/pdfs/denmark-en.pdf">Denmark's Permanent Representative told the General Assembly tonight.

Ambassador Carsten Staur said the world was lagging in the race to achieve many of the eight MDGs before their target date of 2015, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

"The facts are simple. If progress in Africa is not accelerated, we will not live up to our responsibilities," Mr. Staur told the annual high-level debate, held at UN Headquarters in New York.

Noting that countries in Asia and Latin America had posted remarkable economic results in the past decade, he said this showed "that eradication of poverty is not an elusive, unattainable goal."

But many industrialized countries were not meeting their previously expressed commitments to increase official development assistance (ODA) to African nations.

"The Danish Government firmly believes that development assistance to Africa should increase. We need to live up to the promise to double aid for Africa by 2010. Denmark is keeping its part of the bargain. We are committed to providing 0.8 per cent of our national income in development assistance. Two-thirds of our bilateral assistance will go to the African continent."

Mr. Staur stressed that greater development assistance was not enough, and he called for global trading rules to be liberalized and for developing nations to work harder to achieve good governance.
2007-10-02 00:00:00.000

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