In 2000 the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. One of these is halving the number of people living in extreme poverty. However, with only seven years left, campaigners are concerned that at the present rate of aid to poor countries, the goal may not be achieved.
2000年，联合国通过了在2015年之前实现的千禧年发展目标，其中之一是把生活在极端贫困中的人口减少一半。但是，在仅剩下7年的时间里，推动这项目标的人们担心，按照目前对贫穷国家的援助进度，这一目标可能达不到。
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently confirmed that financial assistance to the world's poorest countries fell by 8.4 percent in real terms in 2007. This, the organization says, means aid has fallen for the second year in a row.
经济与合作发展组织最近证实，按实际价值计算，向世界穷国提供的经济援助2007年下降了8.4%。经合组织说，这意味着援助已经连续第二年下滑。
In 2005, G8 leaders pledged to double aid and provide an additional $50 billion a year by 2010. But going by the latest figures, aid campaigners say, the donors will be way off target. Max Lawson, a policy officer at Oxfam, describes the reneging of countries on promises they made to increase aid at the G8 summit at Gleneagles in 2005 as a scandal.
在2005年，八大国集团承诺要增加一倍援助，并在2010年之前每年额外提供500亿美元的援助。但是援助的倡导者说，最新的数字显示，捐助国远远达不到这个目标。马克斯.劳森是乐施会的一位政策官员。他说，一些国家背弃他们2005年在格伦伊格尔斯八国峰会所作的增加援助的承诺，这是个丑闻。
"The French and the Germans in particular are refusing to do that. We worry there is not enough domestic pressure on them," said Lawson. "They are worried about their economies, rich countries are facing the credit crunch but that's just an excuse; there can be no excuse for the richest nations in the world not delivering on these promises."
他说：“尤其是法国人和德国人拒绝兑现承诺。我们担心这些国家内部对政府的压力不够。他们担心他们自己的经济状况，说富裕国家目前面临信贷危机只不过是个托词。世界最富有国家没有借口可以不兑现这些承诺。”
Figures however show that the decline in aid figures started in 2006 after rising every year for the past decade. Elvira Groll of Action Aid says the shortfall was revealed after the end of debt relief which she says donor countries used to highly inflate aid figures.
但是数据显示，援助额度从2006年开始下滑。在此之前的10年中，援助额度每年都在上升。“行动援助”机构的埃尔威拉.格罗尔说，在减免穷国债务行动结束后，援助不足才显现出来。他说，捐助国常常过分夸大援助额度。
"Although we do consider debt relief to be very important to free resources in developing countries it's not genuine aid which helps the poorest in the countries themselves, it's not money that goes straight to the countries so Action aid has repeatedly called on donor countries to stop counting debt relief as aid and include that in their aid statistics," said Groll.
格罗尔说：“虽然我们认为减免债务很重要，能解放发展中国家的资源，但这不是真正帮助这些国家最贫穷人们的援助，这不是直接向这些国家提供的援助款，因此‘行动援助’多次呼吁捐助国不要再把减免债务算作援助，并把这些减免债务的数字纳入他们的援助统计数字中。”
In addition, Groll says, student costs and refugee relief was also added to the aid figures.
此外，格罗尔说，学生经费和难民救济也被计算到救援金额中。
Oxfam's Lawson says the $50 billion the G8 promised in aid could be missed by as much as $30 billion and this could cost lives.
乐施会的劳森说，八国集团承诺的500亿美元的援助可能短少300亿美元之多，这可能会付出生命的代价。
"You can begin to count what that $30 billion could pay for," said Lawson. "The World Health Organization has made clear costings of what it would cost to cut the numbers of children dying; the number of mothers dying in child birth and to get people with HIV access to medicines to keep them alive. We calculate that the missing money could save at least five million lives so there is a direct human cost."
劳森说：“你可以开始计算那300亿美元能作什么用途。世界卫生组织清楚地列明减少儿童死亡人数所需的费用，减少孕妇分娩中死亡人数的费用，以及向感染艾滋病毒的人们提供药品、延长他们生命所需的费用。我们估计，这短缺的资金至少能拯救500万人的性命，因此其中有直接的生命代价。”
John Clancy, a spokesman for Louis Michel the European Commission's development and Commissioner agrees that the drop in Official Development Aid from the European Union and other donor countries is due to debt relief coming to an end. A lot of countries, he says, had been able to balance their development aid against debt relief. Clancy however says the announcement of the shortfall could be used positively.
约翰.克兰西是欧洲委员会的发展委员米歇尔的发言人。他认为，欧盟和其它捐助国官方发展援助的额度下降是由于债务减免行将结束。他说，很多国家能平衡他们的发展援助和债务减免。不过克兰西说，可以正面地利用关于援助不足的消息。
"It offers us all a wake up call with regards to commitments," said Clancy. "These are issues that concern us all and it's very important which is why the European Commission made its call for at least its member states to stick to their commitments and to get back on track because it is reachable but there has to be of course political will."
克兰西说：“它提醒我们大家要信守承诺。这是我们大家都关注的非常重要的问题，这就是为什么欧洲委员会至少向成员国发出呼吁，要他们信守承诺，回到正确轨道上来，因为这个目标还是能达到的，但当然必须要有政治意愿。”
But Oxfam's Lawson says the goal of halving the people living in extreme poverty globally may be met because of growth in China but there are big doubts in Africa where there are still millions of people living in desperate poverty.
但是乐施会的劳森说，因为中国经济的发展，减少全球最贫困人口的目标可能会达到，但是在非洲仍存在很大的疑问。目前非洲仍有数百万人生活在绝对贫困之中。 |