UN chief: Financial summit must focus on poor

Wednesday November 12, 2008
UN chief: Financial summit must focus on poor


UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged world leaders attending this weekend's financial summit in Washington to do everything they can to alleviate the impact of the current crisis on the world's poorest people.

Ban, who will be attending the summit, said he will also tell the leaders that the billions of dollars being spent to mitigate the financial crisis are already "vastly more'' than the amounts they allocate to international aid.

So "this is clearly a question of will,'' the secretary-general said.

U.S. President George W. Bush has invited leaders of the world's 20 largest industrialized nations and emerging economies to meet Saturday to tackle the financial crisis that has sent economic growth plummeting in many countries and raised fears of a long-term global recession.

"First, we must do everything we can to alleviate the impact of the crisis on the world's poorest and most vulnerable people,'' Ban told reporters at U.N. headquarters.

The secretary-general said this is more important now than reforming international institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund which will take time.

"I would welcome any measures and initiatives to address this global financial crisis, including the reinvention and reform of the basic structures of financial institutions,'' Ban said.

"But I am more interested, and my focus will be more on how to insulate the interest and well-being of developing countries from the financial crisis impact.''

The secretary-general said the crisis is also an opportunity to address climate change.

"At a time of growing economic hardship, green growth can create millions of jobs,'' he said.

Ban said he also wants the summit to focus on the food crisis and achieving U.N. development goals by 2015, including cutting in half the number of people living in extreme poverty and ensuring that every child has a primary school education.

"This is just a beginning,'' the secretary-general said of Saturday's summit.

"I think this will have to be followed by many subsequent meetings and consultations.''

Ban said he will be making the same appeals at a U.N. development summit in Doha, Qatar, from Nov. 29-Dec. 2.

The U.N. International Conference on Financing for Development will assess progress on the international agreement reached in Monterrey, Mexico in 2002 to alleviate poverty and fuel development.

The U.N. said Tuesday the Doha meeting will focus on trade, aid, investment, debt alleviation, mobilizing national resources and "effective international architecture.''

It will also steer the Monterrey agenda to challenges that have taken on a higher profile since 2002 including climate change, food and agriculture.

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