Germany second most-important donor country

According to OECD data, German development funding rose to $ 12.3 billion (€ 9 billion) last year, up from $10.4 (€ 8.3 billion) in 2006. The Federal Republic has thus surpassed France, Britain and Japan and ranks second behind the USA. In 2006, Germany was still in the fifth slot.
In view of these data, Germany’s International Development Minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, insists that the advanced nations are not doing enough for the international community to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. She bemoans that humankind spends ten times more money on military matters than fighting poverty.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Wieczorek-Zeul and Trevor Manuel, South Africa’s finance ministere, as his special envoys for the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus. The conference will take place in Doha, Qatar at the end of the year. (eli)