UN Conference on Financing for Development Begins in Doha

(29 Nov 08 - RV) Western leaders as well as the heads of the IMF and World Bank will not attend a U.N. Conference in Doha on financing for development as the developed world remains preoccupied with global financial turmoil. The absence of key players may mean few if any commitments will be made on attaining U.N. goals of reducing poverty at a meeting set up to discuss ways to finance development through trade, aid and debt relief. The financial crisis, which has prompted government bailouts in Europe and the United States and raised the spectre of a deep global recession, seems to have dampened the appetite for providing aid, angering developing countries and aid agencies. According to World Bank estimates, 40 million people will be dragged into poverty in 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis and related economic meltdown. The Holy See’s Permanent observer to the United Nations in New York, Archbishop Celestino Migliore told us why the Holy See sees trade reform as key to combating global poverty.