I am back to posting to this blog, hopefully on a regular and more frequent basis. Although I raised a number of different aspects of the Millennium Development Goals that will need to be addressed to see their successful implantation, the most critical one is still funding, only things are getting worse. Two sources on the same subject, one from Change.org and the other from the Millennium Campaign.
Budget Shortfall from Change.org
It seems like everyone is facing a massive budget gap this year, and the United Nations is no different. Of the $9 billion that the UN was supposed to receive for humanitarian aid this year, the organization has only received half. And that's despite the fact that more people - some say upwards of 43 million people - are relying on UN aid than ever before. Humanitarian Relief blogger Michael Kleinman studies the budget shortfall at the UN and how this might impact humanitarian relief throughout the globe. Turns out that the problem is partly about a lack of money, and partly about a lack of political will. (Read More)
Directly from the United States Millennium Campaign which reported that on June 23, 2009 , the United Nations Millennium Campaign released an analysis showing that since the inception of aid (overseas development assistance) almost 50 years ago, donor countries have given some $2 trillion in aid. Yet over the past year, $18 trillion has been found globally to bail out banks and other financial institutions.
The stark contrast between the money dispersed to the world's desperately poor after 49 years of painstaking summits and negotiations and the staggering sums found virtually overnight to bail out the creators of the global economic crisis makes it impossible for governments to any longer claim that the world can't find the money to help the 50,000 people who are dying of extreme poverty every day," said Salil Shetty, Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign. "This is a straightforward question of political will. Rich countries' priorities will become crystal clear at this week's summit on the economic crisis, where we hope they will finally deliver on the aid they have repeatedly pledged but not delivered to those who need it most."
The Campaign is therefore calling on donor countries to immediately and unconditionally do the following:
- Agree to a timetable to accelerate delivery of their aid commitments.
- Make rapid progress toward achieving the Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda to simplify and streamline aid, including a clear timetable for implementation of existing commitments.
- Reduce and/or eliminate all trade-distorting agricultural subsidies.
- Ensure that poor countries are fully represented in all decision making bodies and in the restructuring of the global financial infrastructure.
- that national development policies and plans are pro-poor and focused on women and excluded groups.
- Prioritize expenditures on the Millennium Development Goals.
- Ensure accountability and transparency in the management of public money.
- Prioritize domestic resource mobilization.
Go to www.youtube.com/mcampaign to watch the videoclip.
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