13 September 2005

Countries yield to US blitz on development - ActionAid

Anti-poverty campaigners today accused key UN member states, including the EU countries, of failing to defend commitments on aid, debt and HIV/AIDS in the face of aggressive US pressure.

The attack came as development agency ActionAid International revealed a leak of the revised text on development at the UN World Summit in New York this week.

According to the leak, the EU and the G77 group of developed and developing nations have let the US ignore poor countries’ pleas for faster progress to achieve millennium development goals.

The text reveals that governments have omitted to concede that the first goal - primary education for all girls by the end of this year – has already been missed in 70 countries.

Countries have also made the 2010 deadline for a package of actions aimed at halting and reversing the HIV/AIDS pandemic an aspiration rather than an obligation.

The vow made by UN member states to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on aid remains in the text – but now without any call on countries to hit the target.

The agreement in July by the richest nations at the G8 summit to cancel debt for heavily indebted countries has been watered down to 'proposals'.

And debt cancellation for low and middle-income countries has been replaced by 'relief'.

ActionAid International chief executive, Ramesh Singh, said: "The biggest-ever summit of world leaders seems poised to hand out small change to the world’s poor."