Bono says rich world failing anti-poverty campaign

from The Irish Times

It is time to move beyond moral statements of intent to fight poverty and turn them into legally binding agreements, rock star Bono has told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Bono said the world was facing a moment of truth. "Where another generation put a man on the moon, we can't put every kid in school."

"Where another generation fought fascism and injustice and prevailed, we fail in our fight against the anopheles mosquito which kills 3,000 people a day," he said, referring to malaria deaths.

United Nation Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon echoed Bono's statement, saying rich nations were failing the world's poor and must redouble efforts to tackle the worst effects of global poverty.

Mr Ban, flanked by rock star Bono, British prime minister Gordon Brown and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, said the developed world was not on course to meet targets set out in Millennium Development Goals.

Those goals fixed a 2015 deadline to tackle extreme poverty and improve access to education and healthcare. "Too many nations have fallen behind.

We need fresh ideas and fresh approaches. It is unacceptable that one child dies of hunger every day, every five seconds," Mr Ban told a news conference at the forum.

Mr Ban said he would use September's annual United Nations summit to refocus attention on the millennium goals. "We will bring together the world leaders and together demand action," he said.

"We must re-energise the world's commitment."

Mr Brown said Britain will host a meeting in May of private sector companies to discuss what they could contribute to meeting the millennium goals and tackling what he described as a poverty and development emergency.

"This is a unique call to action, never made before, to all private sector companies, all NGOs (non-governmental organisations) as well as all governments," Mr Brown said.

He said the issue would also be on the agenda of European Union leaders at a meeting in June and at the G8 meeting of major industrialised powers in Japan the next month.

"We have promised that infant mortality will be cut by three quarters by 2015. On present trends we will not make that happen until at least 2050," Mr Brown said.

"We have promised that every child will be in schooling by 2015, but ... on present trends we will not achieve that before 2115 and the children of the world cannot wait another century."