"Anti-poverty summit raises 16 billion dollars: UN chief"

Source: Agence France Press, September 26, 2008.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Thursday: "We have full commitment from many countries in pledges to help the world's poor, around the 16 billion dollars mark." The announcement was made at the close of the day-long summit called to review implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The exact total from pledges from world leaders, the private sector and civil society still had be tallied, and it should be noted that in the past not all such pledges had been fulfilled.

Major commitments were announced Thursday in four key areas: malaria control, education, health and food security.

• Participants committed around three billions dollars for malaria to save more than 4.2 million lives between 2008 and 2015
• 4.5 billion dollars' worth of new pledges and commitments were made for education which are to get 24 million children into school by 2010, as a milestone toward universal primary education by 2015
• In the health sector, commitments totaling nearly two billion dollars next year and rising to seven billion by 2015 were made for the MDGs relating to child mortality and maternal health
• 1.6 billion dollars were pledged to boost food security, including a new initiative to help poor farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and central America gain access to rich markets.

The Washington Post, in its coverage of the story, notes:

Last year, donors spent about $103.7 billion in foreign assistance. Ban has asked states to give an additional $18 billion a year, including more than $6 billion a year for Africa.