The year 2005 has become the year of development. In September, at the UN Millennium Summit meeting of heads of state, in New York,
leaders of wealthy nations will emphasize their commitment to deeper
debt relief and increased aid programs for developing countries. The
Millennium Development Goals, the centerpiece of the conference’s
program, call for halving the levels of world poverty and hunger by 2015.
The summit will focus on increasing international aid to 0.7 percent
of donors’ gross national product to finance a doubling of aid transfers
to especially needy areas, particularly in Africa.With respect to global
trade, efforts will center on the Doha Round of multilateral trade
negotiations and opening markets to important exports (such as cotton)
from developing countries. The discussions will thus proceed based
on two implicit but critical underlying assumptions: that wealthy
nations can materially shape development in the poor world and that
their efforts to do so should consist largely of providing resources to
and trading opportunities for poor countries.