\nyear in external funding, to help Africa win the battle against poverty
\nwas on Tuesday launched at the gathering of the continent’s political
\nleaders in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.<\/p>\n
A landmark plan of action, targetting an estimated 72 billion dollars a
\nyear in external funding, to help Africa win the battle against poverty
\nwas on Tuesday launched at the gathering of the continent’s political
\nleaders in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.<\/p>\n
President
\nJohn Agyekum Kufuor is among the Heads of State and Government of the
\n53-member nation bloc, who attended the two-day summit held under the
\ntheme "Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on Water and Sanitation."<\/p>\n
The
\nplan, an initiative of the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Ban
\nKi-Moon, provides a roadmap for fighting extreme poverty, hunger and
\ndisease to achieve the MDGs by 2015 and comes at a time when there is
\ngrowing anxiety that many African Nations are not on track to meet the
\ngoals.<\/p>\n
It outlines focussed investments in agriculture,
\neducation, health and infrastructure, as critical to present and future
\nefforts to reach the MDGs and was jointly produced and endorsed by the
\nUN, African Union (AU) Commission, African Development Bank (AfDB),and
\nthe European Union (EU) Commission.<\/p>\n
The others are the
\nInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), Islamic Development Bank Group,
\nOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the
\nWorld Bank.<\/p>\n
AU Chairman Jakaya Kikwete, described it as "a
\ncall to action" and said it needed to be implemented immediately to
\nhalt the spread of suffering.<\/p>\n
Mr Jean Ping, Chairperson of
\nthe AU Commission, said African leaders were looking to the Group of
\nEight most industrialized nations (G8) to turn their existing promises
\ninto action.<\/p>\n
"The credibility of international commitments
\nis at stake. There are many development success stories across Africa
\nthat can be replicated in more countries with additional funding."<\/p>\n
He
\nnoted that the existing EU and G8 commitments, combined with the
\npresent aid flows from others sources, were sufficient to fund the plan.<\/p>\n
With
\nthe momentum generated by strong economic growth rates in many African
\ncountries, increased commitment to domestic resource mobilization,
\nimproving governance and better policy performance, Africa could still
\nachieve the MDGs by the year 2015.<\/p>\n
These solid efforts by
\nthe governments needed to be matched by follow-through on G8 aid
\npledges to help the continent to make major gains against poverty.<\/p>\n
The
\nG8 at its summit in Gleanagles in 2005 pledged to increase official
\ndevelopment assistance (ODA) to Africa by 25 billion dollars annually
\nby 2010.<\/p>\n
Current statistics show that net annual ODA to
\nAfrica has so far increased by only about a quarter of the 25 billion
\ndollars promised.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, President Kufuor, is scheduled to give his farewell address at the summit later in the day.<\/p>\n
Measured
\nin 2007 US dollars, the Gleanagles commitment implied total net ODA
\nflow to Africa of about 62 billion dollars per year.<\/p>\n
\nSource: GNA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n