The economic crisis has pushed an extra 90 million people into extreme poverty in the developing world and made 23 million people unemployed.
The economic crisis has pushed an extra 90 million people into extreme poverty in the developing world and made 23 million people unemployed. It will also lead to between 200,000 and 400,000 more infant deaths a year on average between 2009 and 2015. On Thursday Members of the European Parliament called for more money to alleviate the crisis.
In a resolution, Parliament says that the crisis "is undermining, and in some cases nullifying, hard-won progress on poverty, hunger and mother and child mortality, as well as on primary education and gender equality."
It is risking "access to clean water and proper hygiene... jeopardising the achievement of the MDGs (Millenium Development Goals), in particular those relating to health," it said.
The resolution, drafted for the Development Committee by French Green Eva Joly says parliament is: "gravely concerned about the fact that, as at July 2009, 82% of the newly loaned IMF resources had gone to European countries and just 1.6% to countries in Africa". MEPs also expressed concern that aid from some EU states to the developing world fell in real terms in 2008.
Members want additional funding for developing countries, reform of the international financial institutions and a review of policies towards the Millennium Development Goals in 2010.
They also want to see greater European policy coherence in areas like the economy, trade, the environment and agriculture.