Many African countries would not achieve U.N. targets for alleviating poverty by 2015, African Union Chairman Alpha Konare said in the Nigerian capital Saturday. "The proportion of people living in extreme poverty in Africa increased from 44.6 per cent in 1990 to 46.5 per cent in 2001 and the levels of social development and quality of life remain low," the former president of Mali wrote in a statement read to a meeting of the Economic Commission for Africa. "More than 160 million Africans live in slum-like conditions, primary school enrolment rates remain the lowest in the world and the HIV prevalence rate is the world's highest at 7.5 per cent," he said according to DPA. The continent could get back on track if African governments remained fully committed and development partners lived up to their long-standing commitments in the areas of aid and trade. Aid would have to increase in real terms from the 2004 level of just under 25 billion dollars to 37 billion dollars this year and then climb steadily to 73 billion dollars by 2015, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa Kingsley Amoako said. The Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the U.N. Assembly in 2000 committed the international community to fight poverty, accelerate human development and address the integration of the developing world, particularly Africa, into the global economy.
