UN chief Ban Ki-moon has revealed that the United Nations has realised a total of roughly 16 billion dollars, in the UN summit that was organised to intently rev up the war on global poverty.
He said the exact total from promises from world leaders, the private sector and civil society still had to be tallied. He remarked on the donations amidst the backdrop of the world’s financial crisis.
‘We have full commitment from many countries in pledges to help the world’s poor, around the 16 billion dollars mark. This is exactly the kind of broad, global coalition we need to reach all of our Millennium Development Goals.’ Ki-Moon said.
The gathering was called to galvanize world support to ensure that eight poverty reduction goals agreed by world leaders in 2000 are met by all countries by 2015. Africa is lagging the rest of the world in meeting the ambitious goals.
The MDGs include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating diseases such as HIV/AIDS, ensuring environmental sustainability and creating global partnerships for development.
