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8th June 05 - Larry Elliot, The Guardian (UK) The UN called for urgent action today to avert "disaster" in Africa as it outlined the human cost of a business-as-usual approach to development in the world's poorest continent.
Amid signs that the countries of sub-Saharan Africa would miss the 2015 goals for poverty reduction, child mortality and education by a wide margin, the UN's human development office called for concrete steps to end the debt crisis, open up western markets and provide more and better aid.
But Gordon Brown praised Europe yesterday for working "at its best" as he hailed talks on increasing aid to the developing world, especially Africa.
Speaking after a meeting of European finance ministers in Luxembourg, Mr Brown said he hoped that agreement would soon be reached on agreeing 100% debt relief and a dramatic increase in immunisation programmes.
He said: "We are determined and there was a view right across the 25 [EU countries] that Europe wanted to make a special contribution to the resolution of problems between rich and poor countries."
Data collected for the UN's human development report due out in September to coincide with a special summit in New York showed that progress made in other parts of the world was not being replicated in Africa. By 2015, the poorest countries in the continent would account for a rising share of those living in extreme poverty, of those deprived of a primary school education and of those dying before the age of five.
In terms of child mortality, the UN said 5 million children under five would be dying in 2015, more than at present. If the millennium development goal [MDG] of cutting infant mortality by 2015 were met, the number of child deaths would be cut to 2 million, while the cumulative number of additional child deaths over the next decade resulting from the failure to hit the target would be 29 million.
"These preliminary figures are based on trends - and trends can be changed through good national policies and more effective cooperation. But the numbers speak for themselves: business as usual will carry a high price in terms of lost lives and lost human potential for Africa," said Kevin Watkins, director of the UN human development report office.
The UN said the trends in child mortality raised particularly grave concerns. "Currently 4.8 million children in sub-Saharan Africa die before the age of five every year - that is nine deaths every minute. With one fifth of the world's births, sub-Saharan Africa currently accounts for 45% of child deaths."
Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where the number of child deaths is rising, the UN added, noting that on current trends it would not meet the MDG for infant mortality until 2115 - a century late. "If current trends continue, there will be 5.1 million deaths in 2015, with Africa's share rising to 57% of the total. Of 45 countries in the region, 10 countries - including Zambia, Kenya and Zimbabwe - have gone backward since 1990. Another 19 countries are progressing so slowly that the MDG target on child mortality will be missed by more than 35 years.
Sub-Saharan Africa currently accounts for 43 million of the 115 million children out of school, or just over one third of the total. That share is rising over time, the UN said. "While the region is making progress towards the MDG, that progress is too slow to achieve the target of universal primary education by 2015."
This article appears courtesy of the The Guardian Newspaper
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