Millennium Development Goals, Lagging donor support slows anti poverty drive

Donors need to intensify their support to help countries achieve the globally agreed goals of slashing hunger, poverty, disease and a host of other social ills by the target date of 2015, says a new United Nations report released today.

The annual report prepared by the UN's Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Gap Task Force says that support has risen sharply since the targets were set in 2000, with donor countries having provided a record-high $129 billion in official development assistance (ODA) last year.