UNDP urges rich countries to boost their commitments

MANILA, Philippines – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has urged donors to “continue, and ideally boost, their current commitments” to help the agency pull the world’s developing countries out of poverty.

UNDP Administrator Helen Clark called on the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialized countries to boost aid to poor countries that are facing possible shortfalls in funding due to the global economic crisis.

“I’m concerned that we may not meet our income targets for 2009 and 2010, and that we will face a continuing imbalance between contributions to regular and other resources,” Clark said.

She called on donor countries to fulfill their pledge to commit 0.7 percent of their gross national income to official development assistance (ODA).

She said the Millennium Development Goals, the UN-endorsed targets remain at the core of UNDP’s strategic plan. Such targets seek to mitigate by 2015 a host of social ills ranging from poverty and hunger to maternal and infant mortality to lack of access to health and education.

“With 2015 now barely six years away, we need an enormous focus on the MDGs,” she told a session of the executive board of UNDP and the UN Population Fund.

Clark said many developing countries face reduced domestic revenue this year and need support to maintain budgets for basic services like health and education, vital ingredients in meeting the MDGs.

“If children are pulled out of school because of the effects of the crisis on their families and their countries’ budgets, they may never get a second chance in education. If children have poor nutrition because of the crisis, the long-term effects on their cognitive skills and productive potential are serious,” she added.

“Profound economic crisis in vulnerable countries then may extend into a humanitarian crisis, and at worst precipitate instability and conflict. The consequences may take years or even decades to remedy, ultimately at a much greater cost to the international community than timely support right now.”

Without secure and predictable funding, Clark said the UNDP cannot plan ahead and be fully effective in helping countries reach their development goals.

“We will, however, spare no effort to meet our resource projections. We do deeply appreciate the ongoing support of our donors, and urge them to continue, and ideally boost, their current commitments. We can also consider how our donor pool could be expanded,” she said. –Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star)