Millennium targets at risk without new funds - UN

GENEVA, July 2 (Reuters) The world will struggle to meet the Millennium Development Goals on eradicating extreme poverty unless rich countries boost their international aid budgets, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.

Presenting a report at the mid-point to the international targets' deadline, the United Nations chief faulted a lack of development funds for ''mixed'' progress toward the commitments made in 2000 to cut infant mortality, reduce hunger, combat HIV and boost primary school enrollment.

''The lack of any significant increase in official development assistance since 2004 makes it impossible, even for well-governed countries, to meet the Millennium Development Goals,'' Ban said.

While fast Asian economic growth has helped cut the number of people living on 1 dollar a day worldwide, the UN report noted challenges in improving safe drinking-water access, boosting child and maternal survival rates, preserving biodiversity and getting more women into the paid workforce.

Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest corner of the world, has struggled to keep up with other regions, the report said, noting urgent needs in its fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as basic medical care and education.

Despite such obstacles, Ban said it should be possible to reach the much-trumpeted international goals by 2015 if wealthy countries ''act now'' to bolster international aid flows, and the Group of Eight industrialised nations meet their pledge to double aid to Africa by 2010.

''Adequate resources need to be made available to countries in a predictable way for them to be able to effectively plan the scaling up of their investments,'' he said.

Only five countries - Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden - have met a long-standing UN target of devoting 0.7 per cent of gross national income to development aid. Last year, donors gave net aid disbursements worth 103.9 billion dollar, or 0.3 per cent of their combined national income.

The U.N. report noted significant progress toward the Millennium target of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, a goal it said should be attainable by 2015 if recent trends continue.

About 980 million people, or 19 per cent of the developing world population, were living on an income of less than 1 dollar per day in 2004, compared to 1.25 billion people in 1990, when 32 per cent were in that category. The proportion of desperately poor people in sub-Saharan Africa decreased more gradually over the period, to 41 per cent in 2004 from 47 per cent.

But persistently high rates of underweight children in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are threatening the Millennium target on cutting hunger, and the goal on safe drinking water and basic sanitation access is also far from reach, the report found. The number of people without access to sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa rose between 1990 and 2004, and could increase further if current trends continue, it said.

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