Geneva - Efforts to halve the number of Africa poor's by 2015 are far behind schedule, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, saying the pace of progress could be accelerated at a "fraction of the cost of the Iraq war".
"On current trends, Africa will not meet the goal of halving poverty until 2147," the head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) told reporters in Geneva, referring to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the international community in 2000.
"At a fraction of the cost of the Iraq war for a year, we could shift that 2147 date back to something very close to 2015," said Mark Malloch Brown, the UNDP administrator.
This would require "policies to agree to achieve seven to eight percent growth per year in Africa in the next decade, and... levels of public investment that we've been calling for in health and education basic infrastructure," he told a press briefing.
http://iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=qw108736974054A162But they have plenty of wine vinyards and rose nurseries!