World Bank: Poverty Aid Needs to Double

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Sept. 7
— By Anna Willard

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rich countries need to more than double the $16 billion a year they have pledged in aid to help cut poverty around the world by 2015, and poor Asian countries and some African countries are most in need of the funds, according to a new World Bank study.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, said that countries such as Albania, Bolivia and Honduras, which already have high aid flows, need much less extra aid than Asian and African nations with high poverty rates such as Bangladesh, India, Vietnam and Ethiopia.

The document will be discussed by senior finance officials from around the world at the World Bank's annual meetings in Dubai at the end of September.

At a conference in Mexico last year, rich countries promised to increase aid by around $16 billion annually by 2006. But the bank finds that this will not be enough to help some countries meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to cut poverty in half by 2015.

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