Oxfam Criticizes G8 Nations for Failing To Sufficiently Increase Aid for Development Programs, Including HIV/AIDS Initiatives
Oxfam on Friday released a report criticizing the Group of Eight industrialized nations for not providing enough aid to international development programs -- including programs to fight HIV/AIDS -- and for pulling money from aid budgets to cancel debt owed by developing countries, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. The report, released Friday ahead of this year's G8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, says three global initiatives -- the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Education Fast Track Initiative and the new U.N. Central Emergencies Response Fund -- are "shockingly underfunded." According to Oxfam, the G8 nations have not done enough to reach the target of universal access to antiretroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS by 2010. Although the G8 nations pledged an extra $1.5 billion to the Global Fund during their 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, that money only applied to existing Global Fund programs and "contribut[ed] nothing to the new round of proposals for new programs to achieve the universal [access to antiretroivals] target," according to the report. The report also says that international aid from G8 nations since 2005 has increased 9% (Barr, AP/Yahoo! News, 6/9).
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