Rio heads back innovative financing for hunger, poverty

from Staborek News

-say impossible for some to meet millennium goals

Heads of State and government of the Rio Group members have indicated that they would support the initiative to fight hunger and poverty tied to innovative financing mechanisms.

The Heads also made a call for the international community to continue constructive dialogue in favour of the implementation of the other options in the menu of innovative mechanisms as part of a common goal to give attention to social and economic development.

In the declaration on hunger and poverty, at the 19th Rio Group Summit held here last weekend, leaders also acknowledged that hunger is one of the worst forms of violation of human rights. The document said that the fight against poverty and hunger was an ethical, political and economic challenge faced by rich as well as poor countries. To this end the leaders agreed that it was imperative that they explore new forms of international cooperation between developed and developing countries.

In this vein promoting strategic policies and alliances which would allow the growth of a more participatory globalization process, was mooted, along with the need for leaders to assume the challenges and opportunities with a human character. The leaders also agreed that some progress has been made regarding the commitment and deadlines set for the implementation of official development assistance, but noted that prevailing conditions continued to affect the availability of resources needed in the fight against hunger and poverty.

The declaration stated that "there has been a transition from word to action and in September 2006 the international community witnessed the establishment of UNITAID which is based on the innovative mechanisms of attaching a fee to airfares (and) seeks to combat serious pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria." These diseases, it said, affect developing countries and reinforce their poverty and UNITAID allows access to high quality and competitively priced medication and diagnostic procedures.

Leaders agreed too that based on current international trends it was impossible to fulfil the UN Millennium Development Goals in many countries where extreme poverty and serious social and economic disparity was prevalent.

The initiative against hunger and poverty, the document said, was launched in January 2004. Several meetings followed and their reports were reviewed, and this has since sparked an intense positive international debate and has served to enhance dialogue and co-operation in this regard.

The summit started on February 28 with a grand opening ceremony at the National Cultural Centre and ended on Saturday at the Guyana International Conference Centre where deliberations were held.