Geneva - With dispersed aid levels below the amounts pledged by the world's wealthiest countries, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged members of the G8 to scale up assistance to the developing world. Noting that aid flows were 20 billion dollars below targets set in 2005, Ban called on the "G8 to set out, country by country, how donors will scale up aid over the next year."
The Group of 8 powerful nations will meet in Italy for three days starting July 8.
The head of the UN was speaking at the start of the organization's Economic and Social Council session in Geneva. ECOSOC, as it is known, is a powerful UN organ with much control over budget matters.
A new UN report on the Millennium Development Goals has shown governments lagging behind key aims to cut poverty, increase access to health care and food and improve medical services.
"The current economic environment makes achieving these goals even more difficult," admitted Ban, who said "we have been moving too slowly to meet our goals."
The report showed food insecurity was still high, maternal mortality rates have barely improved in nearly 20 years, many children still do not have access to basic education and proper sanitation remained out of the reach of over a billion people.
Also, larger amounts of carbon dioxide are being released into the air and deforestation continues, in spite of a target of improving environmental sustainability.
Much of the high-level ECOSOC section was set to focus on health.
