OECD calls for more aid for poor countries

from Africasia

Aid from the world's richest nations to its poorest is increasing but remains below the level of agreed commitments and is failing to significantly reduce poverty in many countries, the OECD said Thursday.

In a report, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said development aid for the least developed countries (LDCs) had risen from 57.8 billion dollars in 2002 to 77.8 billion dollars in 2006.

However, that was not keeping pace with the problem.

While Africa as a whole had been able to grow at an overall rate of 5.5 percent in 2006 -- a rate previously thought impossible -- the UN's Millennium development targets were still being missed in several countries, it said.

The OECD, which groups the world's 30 most developed and richest economies, called on donors to do more as Africa needed an average growth rate of 7.0 percent to significantly reduce poverty.

The OECD said rich countries were behind in their aid commitments and needed to increase the level by 12 percent by 2010.

One of the main Millennium Development goals is to reduce the proportion of people living on a dollar a day by half by 2015, a target that should be achieved given the rate of growth in countries such as China and India.

At the same time, poverty persists in many countries, especially those suffering from internal conflict such as Liberia, Burundi, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.