Poverty summit starts in New York

World leaders are meeting at the United Nations in New York for a three-day summit (20-22 September) on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the main framework for development policy over the past decade.

Ten years after the launch of the MDGs and five years before their target date of 2015, many of the goals – especially those on child and maternal health – are not on track, and the summit is seen as the last chance to re-energise the process at a time of austerity. The European Union is represented at the talks by José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, and Andris Piebalgs, the European commissioner for development.

Barroso announced during his ‘State of the Union’ speech to MEPs on 7 September that he would seek an additional €1 billion in development aid to meet the MDGs. The additional aid would come from unallocated funds from the European Development Fund (EDF). The approval of EU member states is required for any such allocation. The funds would go to those developing countries that are most committed to meeting their targets, and priority would be given to the MDGs that are lagging behind.

A Commission source said: “The main message that the Commission wants to pass on is that there has been a lot of progress but that progress has been uneven and unbalanced” in terms of individual MDGs and specific countries.

Elise Ford, the EU representative of development organisation Oxfam, said that the Commission, by pushing for additional funding, “has made certain that Europe doesn’t come to this poverty summit empty-handed”. She also said, however, that the EU was still giving “far from what’s needed to save the MDGs”. She said all the leaders in New York ought to make “personal commitments” to meet their aid promises.

EU member states agreed in 2005 to dedicate 0.56% of their national income to development aid by 2010. The average this year is 0.46%.