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Conflicts, 4th period

September 14, 2005

World leaders to review steps toward antipoverty goals

The U.N. meeting will hear discouraging news on the targets adopted five years ago. Child mortality still plagues Africa.

By Shashank Bengali

Inquirer Washington Bureau

Tue, Sep. 13, 2005

Summary:

The Article is about the Millennium Development Goals, which are a set of antipoverty targets. There is to be a meeting of leaders from more than 170 different countries in New York where they will review the progress on the goals. Problems like, fighting hunger, illiteracy, diseases, gender inequality, and more are major problems throughout the world which the Millennium Development Goals are supposed to correct, so far however, and not much has changed besides a small number of areas. For instance, in Africa the amount of people living on less than $1 a day has risen 11.5 percent higher than it was in 1981. There are a few improvements in Africa, gains in universal primary education, and greater public investment in health and education. The U.S. ambassador claimed that the U.S. would not endorse the Millennium Goals. A leaked draft of the summit document pushes developed countries raise their foreign-aid budgets to .7 percent of their GDP. The U.S. spent .16 percent on development aid in 2004, and doesn't want to raise the amount for the Millennium goals because the goals are too focused on giving aid and not endorsing the change of corruption and the enforcement of law. Bush's reaction to the Millennium Goals was the Millennium Challenge Account. This gives aid to countries that need it, but they also reach a certain level action taken to promote civil liberties, there are four countries which have been allowed in this program, Cape Verde, Honduras, Madagascar and Nicaragua. U.S.' reluctance to help the targets makes U.N. officials nervous that the plan to cut the debt of the 18 poorest countries debts and to double annual aid to Africa by 2010 will not succeed.

Analysis:

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