Wealthy nations must quadruple (firedoble) aid to Ethiopia if it is to escape the mire of poverty and meet the 2015 international goals, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Tuesday, IRIN reports.
Meles also called for debt cancellation and fair trade if the country – one of the poorest nations on earth – is to overcome massive and entrenched poverty. Ethiopia, he added, receives around 13 US dollar (73 DKR) per capita in foreign aid compared to other African countries that receive around 30 dollar (168 DKR).
Officials estimate that Ethiopia needs 122 billion dollar (683 mia. DKR) over the next decade if it is to wipe out poverty and hunger. It currently receives 1,9 billion dollar (10,6 mia. DKR) in aid a year.
– We can only sink or swim together, the prime minister told senior-level UN officials, diplomats and Ethiopian ministers in Addis Ababa.
His comments come after the UN released its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) report on Monday. The goals aim to prevent poverty, hunger and disease around the world.
The project estimates that global aid must increase from current levels of around 50 billion US dollar a year, to 195 billion by 2015 to achieve the MDGs.
In Ethiopia, where almost half of the 70 million people live on less than one dollar a day, debt repayments outstrip health care spending, while half a million children have been orphaned by AIDS. The country is one of eight pilot nations for the MDGs.
The World Bank head in the country, Isaac Diwan, said calls by wealthy nations for greater policy reform were irrelevant if improved aid and greater resources were not made available.
– There is only so much that you can do if you optimise on investments of 10 or 15 dollar per capita, he said, adding: – It is also extremely clear in this case – it is not resources or policy – even very good policy would not go very far without enormous inflow of resources.
The African Union said that the targets to halve poverty by 2015 were off track with only 10 African nations out of 53 likely to achieve half of the eight goals.
– Achieving the MDGs in Africa will be difficult and a few African countries are unlikely to meet even some of the goals, Mkwell Mkwezalamba, the head of the economic affairs commission at the 53-nation bloc, said.
Kilde: FN-bureauet IRINnews
