UNITED NATIONS — In criticism aimed primarily at the United States, Japan and the European Union, a U.N. report said Thursday that rich nations haven’t delivered on promises to help the world’s poorest nations and must increase aid by $18 billion a year.
The report also criticized the failure of rich and poor countries to reach accord in seven years of negotiations on expanding global trade opportunities for developing countries as a way to reduce poverty. It called for redoubled efforts to produce a new trade treaty.
According to the report, aid to developing countries climbed steadily after 1997, peaking at $107 billion in 2005, “boosted by exceptional debt relief in that year.” In 2006, however, international aid dropped by 4.7 percent and fell 8.4 percent more in 2007, the report said.
Ban noted that total aid from the world’s richest nations amounted to only 0.28 percent of their combined national incomes, far below the U.N. target of 0.7 percent. The only countries to reach or exceed that target were Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
