DOHA (AFP) – International bodies called on Saturday for concerted action to help developing nations confront the global economic crisis, but the absence of major leaders at a UN aid conference dampened hopes of concrete initiatives.
“The financial crisis is not the only crisis we face. We also confront a development emergency and accelerating climate change,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the opening of a four-day conference on Financing for Development in Doha. “These threats are inextricably linked. They must be dealt with as one,” he told journalists. “We need a truly global stimulus plan that meets the needs of emerging economies and developing countries.” Ban hosted a “retreat” for world leaders on Friday with the aim of converting intentions expressed at a Group of 20 summit in Washington this month into “concrete recommendations” ahead of the next G-20 meeting in London in April. However, he admitted that only 10 national leaders were among the 34 or 35 high-level delegates who turned up, and no conclusions were announced. Ban said he still hopes the Doha conference can come up with concrete plans as well as updating a 2002 Monterrey Consensus on aid to developing countries. “Global crises call for global solutions,” European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told the conference. “A global answer requires the presence of all regions in the world, representing the voice of the rich, the emerging and the poorest.” He said a climate change conference next month in Poland, and a summit on global warming in Copenhagen next year will fail unless emerging and poor countries are helped to adapt. “Climate change is going to be crucial for developing countries. Doha and Poznan have to move forward together, hand in hand. Indeed, Copenhagen will not succeed without a serious solution on adaptation,” Barroso said. For developing countries, the challenges of climate change come on top of threats to food and energy security and an uncertain impact from the recession in major economies, “while hundreds of millions of people cannot afford basic foodstuffs and risk falling deeper into poverty,” he said. The multiple crises mean it is “all the more necessary” to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and other targets, Barroso said, noting that 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty, on less than 1.25 dollars a day. “It is more important than ever that donors honor their aid volume and aid effectiveness packages,” he said, also calling for aid commitments to be “further enhanced to respond to new challenges.” The World Bank also urged industrialized nations to maintain aid flows to developing countries
“The financial crisis is not the only crisis we face. We also confront a development emergency and accelerating climate change,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the opening of a four-day conference on Financing for Development in Doha. “These threats are inextricably linked. They must be dealt with as one,” he told journalists. “We need a truly global stimulus plan that meets the needs of emerging economies and developing countries.” Ban hosted a “retreat” for world leaders on Friday with the aim of converting intentions expressed at a Group of 20 summit in Washington this month into “concrete recommendations” ahead of the next G-20 meeting in London in April. However, he admitted that only 10 national leaders were among the 34 or 35 high-level delegates who turned up, and no conclusions were announced. Ban said he still hopes the Doha conference can come up with concrete plans as well as updating a 2002 Monterrey Consensus on aid to developing countries. “Global crises call for global solutions,” European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told the conference. “A global answer requires the presence of all regions in the world, representing the voice of the rich, the emerging and the poorest.” He said a climate change conference next month in Poland, and a summit on global warming in Copenhagen next year will fail unless emerging and poor countries are helped to adapt. “Climate change is going to be crucial for developing countries. Doha and Poznan have to move forward together, hand in hand. Indeed, Copenhagen will not succeed without a serious solution on adaptation,” Barroso said. For developing countries, the challenges of climate change come on top of threats to food and energy security and an uncertain impact from the recession in major economies, “while hundreds of millions of people cannot afford basic foodstuffs and risk falling deeper into poverty,” he said. The multiple crises mean it is “all the more necessary” to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and other targets, Barroso said, noting that 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty, on less than 1.25 dollars a day. “It is more important than ever that donors honor their aid volume and aid effectiveness packages,” he said, also calling for aid commitments to be “further enhanced to respond to new challenges.” The World Bank also urged industrialized nations to maintain aid flows to developing countries
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