The commitment came when World Bank Group President Robert B Zoellick addressed the world leaders on MDGs at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday. [break]In his statement, Zoellick also said its MDGs related assistance over the last 10 years has helped to save the lives of 13 million people.
MDGs, signed in 2000, sets developing countries, donors, and others to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger and improve the economic and human welfare of poor people worldwide by 2015.
Under the new promise, Zoellick said the WB would focus on ´The Access Agenda´, helping to ensure people´s access to basic health, quality schooling, clean water, energy, food, and jobs - looking not just at the numbers, but at the quality of services.
“In the health sector, WB will increase the scope of its health results-based programs by more than $600 million until 2015, focusing on 35 countries, particularly in South Asia, East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa,” a press release quoted Zoellick as saying.
South Asia, East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are the regions which face challenges in achieving their MDGs due to high fertility, poor child and maternal nutrition, and high rates of child and maternal disease.
Zoellick further said WB would increase its zero-interest investment in basic education by an additional $750 million to focus on the countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, that are not on track to reach the education MDGs by 2015.
“The MDGs are central to the WB Group´s mission,” said Zoellick. According to the release, WB´s assistance since 2000 has helped immunize 311 million children, provided access to water and sanitation for 177 million people, helped more than 47 million people access health services, provided nutrition supplements to 99 million children and educated 13 million girls.
The World Bank has noted that reaching the MDGs is not just a challenge for the poorest countries, as 70 percent of the world´s poor live in middle income countries. It estimates 64 million more people are living in extreme poverty in 2010, and some 40 million more people went hungry last year because of the triple-blow of food, fuel and financial crises.
The crisis since 2008 has slowed down and even reversed progress towards the MDGs in many countries around the world.
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