UN aid conference opens with only half of the people showing up

In the recent meetings of the G-20, leaders expressed a desire to help underdeveloped nations even during the credit crisis. So in response, the United Nations called a new round of meetings to come up with concrete solutions. That meet opened today with only half of the participants showing up.

As we find in this article from the AFP, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is disappointed.

"The financial crisis is not the only crisis we face. We also confront a development emergency and accelerating climate change," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the opening of a four-day conference on Financing for Development in Doha.


"These threats are inextricably linked. They must be dealt with as one," he told journalists. "We need a truly global stimulus plan that meets the needs of emerging economies and developing countries."

Ban hosted a "retreat" for world leaders on Friday with the aim of converting intentions expressed at a Group of 20 summit in Washington this month into "concrete recommendations" ahead of the next G-20 meeting in London in April.

However, he admitted that only 10 national leaders were among the 34 or 35 high-level delegates who turned up, and no conclusions were announced.

Ban said he still hopes the Doha conference can come up with concrete plans as well as updating a 2002 Monterrey Consensus on aid to developing countries.

" Global crises call for global solutions," European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told the conference.

"A global answer requires the presence of all regions in the world, representing the voice of the rich, the emerging and the poorest."