Leaders call for stronger action against world poverty

from the International Herald Tribune

World leaders pushed Thursday for stronger action to reduce global poverty as financial turmoil spreads and high food prices threaten to aggravate the problems of the poor.

Addressing world leaders at a summit meeting on poverty, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon of the United Nations called on countries to be bold and generous.

With sufficient funds and political will, the fight against poverty, hunger, disease and inequality could be won, he said.

Eight years after its members set a goal of halving global poverty by 2015, the United Nations was taking stock and discussing ways to accelerate progress.

While there has been progress in some countries, the United Nations has said that not a single African country is on track to reach all the targets set out in its Millennium Development Goals.

Ban said this week that the fight against poverty could be won if rich countries provided about $72 billion a year.

"The current financial crisis threatens the well-being of billions of people - none more so than the poorest of the poor," he said. "This compounds the damage being caused by much higher prices for food and fuel."

Ban said current successes in sharply reducing the number of deaths from malaria through prevention and treatment showed progress could be made against disease. Malaria is Africa's biggest killer.

"We are close to containing this scourge," Ban said. "What we are doing with malaria, we should do with education, maternal health, climate and agriculture."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain appealed to rich countries not to use the financial crisis as an excuse to abandon the fight against global poverty.

"This would be the worst time to turn back," he said.

But Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France doubted that the Millennium Development Goals could be reached in the current climate. It was "sort of unfair," he said, to talk about the goals when countries were being affected by the global credit crisis.

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