United States, July 06: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged governments to increase development aid for the poorest countries and improve health services.
Ban says nations have moved too slow to meet their goals of eradicating poverty and hunger.
He told a UN meeting Monday that annual aid flow to Africa remains at least $20 billion below world leaders’ 2005 pledge to increase foreign aid by $50 billion a year by 2010. Ban urges G-8 leaders meeting Wednesday in Italy to determine how donors will scale up aid to Africa over the next year. The latest UN report to review progress on the so-called Millennium Development Goals says the world will fail to achieve most of its targets to boost wealth, health and the quality of life in poor countries by 2015.
–Agencies