UN chief urges aid surge in world of ‘climate chaos, raging conflicts’
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres preparing to speak at an aid conference in Spain that the US has snubbed.
PHOTO: AFP
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SEVILLE, Spain – United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urged the international community on June 30 to “rev up the engine of development” aid in “a world shaken by inequalities, climate chaos and raging conflicts”.
Rich donors led by the United States have slashed or plan to scale down
The cuts risk undoing progress in health, education and humanitarian programmes in developing countries, many of which already struggle under heavy debt burdens.
Opening a UN aid conference in Spain, Mr Guterres said delegates were gathered “to repair and rev up the engine of development to accelerate investment” faced with the “massive headwinds” buffeting the sector.
Those challenges included “a slowing economy, rising trade tensions and decimated aid budgets, a world shaken by inequalities, climate chaos, and raging conflicts”, he said.
Two-thirds of the development goals set by the international community for 2030 were “lagging”, and more than US$4 trillion (S$5 trillion) of annual investment would be needed to achieve them, Mr Guterres said.
The crisis meant children going unvaccinated, girls dropping out of school and families suffering hunger, added Mr Guterres, urging the world to “change course”.
Dozens of world leaders were meeting in the southern city of Seville for the June 30 to July 3 Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, the biggest such talks in a decade.
The gathering is due to adopt a document reaffirming a commitment to eliminating poverty and hunger, promoting gender equality, and reforming tax systems and international financial institutions.
But the US, the world’s key foreign aid donor, is snubbing the event. AFP
