2007年VOA标准英语-UN: Sub-Saharan Africa Not on Track to Reduce P

United Nations and development officials say sub-Saharan Africa will not be able to meet U.N. Millennium¹ Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing extreme poverty and improving health by 2015 without immediate² action. From U.N. headquarters in New York, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon chaired the inaugural³ meeting of the Africa Steering⁴ Group Friday. The meeting brought together leaders from top development agencies including the World Bank and International Monetary⁵ Fund, as well as the African Development Bank to address why Africa is failing to make progress.

Halfway⁶ to the 2015 deadline, Secretary-General Ban says he is worried.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

African Union Commissioner⁷ for Economic Affairs Maxwell Mkwezalamba, says one way of achieving that is for international donors⁸ to make good on pledges made at earlier conferences to increase assistance to Africa to 50 billion dollars annually⁹.

"International support has not been as forthcoming as promised, and this has been one of our major concerns. You look at the commitments made since Monterey [Mexico] in 2002 and Glen Eagles [G-8] summit in 2005, and we find that there is not much that has come to Africa. This indeed is something that needs to be addressed if Africa is to attain¹⁰ MDGs by target date of 2015," he said.

The Steering Group says it is vital for African governments to know how much aid they can count on so they can allocate¹¹ it to such millennium development goals as eradicating¹² hunger and poverty, reducing child mortality, and combating HIV/AIDs, malaria¹³ and other diseases.

European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian¹⁴ Aid Louis Michel says the type of assistance is also very important.

"We have a special focus for aid-for-trade," he explained.  "There cannot be sustainable development in the developing countries without a very strong support of trade. Because trade can of course bring prosperity and jobs, and also give to the states the means they need in order to bring the basic services to the people and to help the people."

While the Steering Group finds Africa's lack of progress alarming, it says it can be turned around in time to meet the 2015 target.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick points to the progress Mozambique has made in lowering infant mortality rates, enrolling¹⁵ more children in primary school and increasing public spending on health, education, agriculture and infrastructure¹⁶ projects.

"One can see very clearly that with the right leadership, the right programs and the right support you can really be quite successful, as Mozambique has been," he noted¹⁷.

While sub-Saharan Africa has had the least success in meeting these goals, the United Nations says Asia has seen the fastest progress. Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa have had mixed results.