Poor nations can still meet poverty goals - U.N.

from Reuters Alert Net

By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura

NAIROBI, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Goals to reduce poverty and advance development in poor nations are still achievable if governments on both sides of the wealth divide show proper commitment, a top U.N. campaigner for the targets said.

Eight U.N. Millennium Development Goals were established in 2001 to halve extreme poverty, cut infant mortality, combat HIV and promote gender equality, among other targets, by 2015. Most experts say the targets are well behind schedule.

"We have another eight years to go and the goals are not ambitious, they are achievable. But we can't achieve them if we carry on as we are, business as usual," Salil Shetty, director of the U.N. Millennium Campaign, told Reuters.

"The rich countries had better keep their promise, but our governments too have to keep their promise," the Indian U.N. official said in a weekend interview on the sidelines of the World Social Forum meeting of global activists in Kenya.

"You can't expect people to increase aid if a country is spending half of its budget on mindless wars."

The global performance on some of the goals like fighting extreme poverty and providing free education was encouraging, Shetty said. But he quickly added this was due to rapid development in China and India.

He said citizens of the poor nations had to hold their government to task if their lives were to improve.

"You can't have a high level of corruption and expect to achieve them. The process of holding our leaders to account should be the people's responsibility."

"BURN THEIR FEET"

In September 2001, some 190 heads of states signed up to work towards the eight goals. Countries in the developed world pledged to increase aid, trim debt and open their markets to products from developing nations.

Shetty said he amount of aid had gone up since 2005, but most of it was to countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan where the West is heavily engaged in conflict-related reconstruction.

The rich had also written off more debts, he added, but trade conditions were still skewed in their favour. "It's a shame. We have to hold their feet on fire for that," he said.

The Doha Round of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) talks, launched in 2001, were intended to increase fair trade but collapsed in July due to acrimony over farm trade.

Experts believe they could be revived during this week's gathering of business and government leaders at the World Economic Forum in the alpine resort town of Davos, Switzerland.

Shetty said the rich could no longer afford to ignore the poor. "The poorest person in the poorest country on the planet can make life very difficult for the richest person in the richest country," he said.