Kinnock tells donors to honour commitments to ACP States
ACP PRESS STATEMENT 5
October 6, 2008
Addressing the 6th African, Caribbean and Pacific Summit of Heads of State and Government in Accra, Ghana last week, the Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Glenys Kinnock, urged international donors to keep their promises to ACP States.
Kinnock, who was one of the speakers at the opening of the Summit, accepted that there is a willingness to continue to work for the fulfilment of the MDG targets with $16 billion been pledged.
“But we will need to scrutinise this in the context of the food crisis and we will have to bear in mind that in 2005 the G8 promised to donate more than $25 billion to Africa by 2010 - but figures released last week show that only $4 billion has actually been delivered,” the Co-President, said.
“Does anyone seriously think that the 21 billion dollar gap is going to be filled in less than two years?”
Kinnock said that many ACP leaders will know that aid works: that it gets children into school, that it means that millions with AIDS are still living and that it means fewer children are dying from Malaria.
“This is proof, if it were needed, that promises must be kept and the efforts on behalf of ACP citizens must be supported,” the Member of the European Parliament said.
|
