UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged developed countries to honor
their commitment to providing development assistance to developing countries.
Speaking at a high-level UN event on financing for
development, the UN chief said that progress on the implementation of the 2002
Monterrey Consensus has been mixed.
"Since 2002, levels of official development
assistance, including new commitments, rose only to fall off since last year,"
Ban said.
"More importantly, the sustained increase required to
meet targets agreed to decades ago, and reiterated in 2002 and 2005, have not
materialized," he said.
"Closing this funding gap is essential if we are to
alleviate extreme poverty, fight diseases and achieve the other development
targets," he said, adding that the challenge is even greater now with the need
to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
"This can only happen when donors meet their ODA
commitment targets, and channel more resources through national budgets," he
said.
He also called for more steps to be taken by rich
nations to reduce the debt owed by developing countries, saying that "putting
all low-income countries on a sustainable path of debt repayment must be a
priority."
"And immediate action is needed to increase the voice
and participation of developing countries in international decision-making,
particularly in the international financial institutions," he said.
"This is essential for the legitimacy, credibility
and, ultimately, the effectiveness of these institutions," he said.
The secretary-general said that the International
Review Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in Doha next year,
offers "a golden opportunity for all stakeholders to consolidate the gains made
and to achieve new breakthroughs."
"It is an opportunity to strengthen the solidarity
and partnership between rich and poor countries that was created five years ago
in Monterrey," he said.
"I urge the international community to do its utmost
to fulfill the commitments made at Monterrey, so that all countries, and all
people, especially the poorest, can benefit," he added.
In his report on the implementation of the
International Conference on Financing for Development held from 18-22 March
2002in Monterrey, Mexico, the UN chief said that since the Monterrey Consensus,
developing countries have worked to improve macroeconomic and fiscal management
and increased social expenditure.
But commitments by developed countries to provide new
resources to support achievement of the Millennium Development Goals have not
been fully met, the report said.
While European Union countries have set goals to
achieve a 0.7 percent ODA target by 2015, other large developed country donors
still remain "considerably behind this target," it said.
The High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development,
hosted bythe 62nd session of the UN General Assembly, is to lay the ground for a
review of anti-poverty promises pledged by world leaders in the 2002 Monterrey
Consensus.
At the 2002 Monterrey conference, developing
countries took primary responsibility for their development, and for mobilizing
domestic resources. Developed countries, in turn, agreed to provide assistance
and promote an enabling international environment for development.
