Industrial nations must urgently fill a
30-billion-dollar gap in overseas aid or risk the loss of five million lives,
the aid agency Oxfam International said Friday as the finance ministers of the
world's leading industrial nations meet in Japan.
In a report launched on Friday, Oxfam urged rich country governments to take
more urgent and stronger action to meet the current global crises or face a
"credibility crunch" over their failure to meet the United Nations'
development goals.
The Group of Eight (G8) finance ministers will discuss the current food crisis,
skyrocketing oil prices, African development and climate change at their
meeting held in Osaka, Japan, on June 13-14.
G8 leaders promised in 2005 at Gleneagles to increase annual aid levels by 50
billion dollars by 2010, Oxfam said, but fears that industrial nations will
renege on their promises, as they are set to miss this target by 30 billion
dollars.
Using UN and WHO figures, Oxfam calculated that the 30 billion dollars could
save five million lives in 2010 alone by providing healthcare and reversing the
spread of HIV/AIDS.
"These are the same ministers who spent more than a trillion dollars in
six months to bail out their own banks, but they cannot find a fraction of that
to save millions of lives," study author Max Lawson said.
Oxfam demanded "ambitious aid increases" from the G8 finance
ministers in order to keep their development promises.
But the financial assistance to tackle the food crisis or climate change had to
come on top of existing aid commitments, Oxfam urged.
Vicky Rateau, head of Oxfam's G8 delegation said that currently not only poor
countries had to pay the price for rich countries' pollution, but the money
available to help them was being diverted from already promised and much needed
aid.
The aid agency called for a freeze on biofuels targets, a substantial increase
in aid spending and urgent action on emission cuts, calling on Japan to spearhead the efforts.
"Japan must lead the G8 to deliver a detailed emergency plan with annual
budget increases to meet Gleneagles G8 promises and go further to reach 0.7 per
cent of GNI (Gross National Income)," Oxfam demanded.
"Economic woes must not be used as excuses: rich countries' credibility is
on the line," the report said, according to dpa.