WP: UN Report Urges Rich to Give More

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U.N. Report Urges Rich To Give More

Nations Have Not Met Pledges to World's Poor

By Colum

Lynch

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, January 18,

2005; Page A13

UNITED

NATIONS, Jan. 17 -- The United States and other rich nations need to increase

their overseas development assistance this year by as much as $48 billion in

order to achieve their commitment to slash in half global poverty for a billion

people in the next 10 years, according to a United Nations report.

The

3,000-page U.N. report was based on the research of 265 scholars, scientists

and poverty specialists. It recommends such practical measures as providing

mosquito nets and building roads and ports to help lift people out of abject

poverty.

D. Sachs, a Columbia University economist who oversaw the

three-year U.N. Millennium Project, said he hopes the recommendations will prod

governments to spend more on the world's poor and serve as a guide for

countries seeking to channel money into anti-poverty programs. But he also

noted that the distribution of international aid has been woefully inadequate

in recent years, with only 30 cents of every aid dollar reaching the poor.

" We

are in a position to end extreme poverty within our generation, " Sachs

said Monday in presenting the 13-volume report to U.N. Secretary General Kofi n.

Sachs

said most rich governments have fallen far short of their commitment at the

U.N. Millennium Summit in 2000 to set aside 0.7 percent of their gross national

product to fight global poverty. Development assistance from the world's 22

wealthiest nations averages about 0.25 percent, or $69 billion. The report

recommends increasing it to 0.44 percent in 2006, or $135 billion, and 0.54

percent, or $195 billion, by 2015.

Only five

countries -- Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway

-- have met the goal, which was reaffirmed by President Bush and other world

leaders at the 2002 conference on international finance at Monterrey, Mexico. Six

others -- Britain, France, Ireland, Spain, Finland and Belgium -- have pledged

to reach that level by 2015.

The United

States, the world's richest country with an $11 trillion economy, provides

0.15 percent, or $16.3 billion, of its gross national product for overseas

development assistance. It would need to spend $30 billion more a year to reach

the 0.7 percent target.

The

report's release comes just weeks after Jan Egeland, a senior U.N. aid

official, said that the United States and other donor countries

have been " stingy " in their development assistance.

Sachs

said he hoped that the spirit of charity that followed the recent tsunami will

continue, spurring donations to vital but obscure causes that could save

millions of lives. " Unbeknownst to most people, as many children die every

month of malaria as died in the Indian Ocean tsunami, about

150,000 or more, " Sachs said. " And yet malaria is a largely

preventable and wholly treatable disease. "

World

leaders from 189 countries pledged in New York in 2000 to halve extreme poverty

by 2015 for the world's 1 billion people who survive on less than $1 a day, and

to reduce hunger and reverse the spread of AIDS and malaria.

Sachs

said governments and international development and financial institutions,

including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have not devised

a strategy to achieve the goals.

The

report calls on the world's most powerful countries to increase investments in

poor countries, eliminate trade barriers and extend debt relief to poor

countries that have shown a commitment to good governance. Germany,

Japan and other wealthy countries that seek permanent seats on the U.N.

Security Council should be made to increase their aid commitments as the price

of admission, the report said.

The plan

also calls on poor countries to dramatically increase spending on anti-poverty

initiatives, including research that advances health care, improves crop yields

and preserves the environment. The report cites inexpensive " quick

fix " initiatives -- such as eliminating fees for schools, health clinics

and antiretroviral drugs for AIDS victims -- that could save millions of lives.