World Bank president James Wolfensohn said on Thursday that both rich and poor nations needed to step up their game as the mid-term point approaches for a bold global initiative against poverty. "All of us in both the developing and the developed world need to lift our game if we're going to achieve the Millennium (Development) Goals that we review next year," he said.
Rich countries had to take three-pronged action, Wolfensohn told a news conference after meeting European Union finance ministers here to take stock of the goals, which were agreed amid much fanfare in 2000.
"They need to help build capacity, they need to open their markets to trade, and they need to increase by probably in the order of 50 billion dollars over the next three years the level of (development) support," he said.
Developing countries must also improve their governance and fight corruption, he added.
Wolfensohn has said the world is falling behind on its 2000 commitments to halve the proportion of people living in deepest poverty by 2015, as well as to transform disease control and access to drinking water.
The poverty goal overall is likely to be met thanks to booming growth in the world's two most populous countries, China and India, but Africa in particular is being left behind.
Wolfensohn recalled that the developed world had promised to raise its development assistance to an average of 0.7 percent of gross domestic product - a target that the United States is well behind.
"I think that in the context of what was promised, Europe is keeping to its promises," he said.
"But I don't think we should be apportioning blame at this minute. I think what we should be doing is setting new targets which are higher than the ones we have now."
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