did not have enough to eat, and 28 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were infected with HIV/AIDS. It was a disgrace that the international community continued to allow such human suffering. She was proud to represent one of only five countries that had honoured its ODA commitment of 0.7 per cent. She hoped all rich countries would do the same. She was also proud to be part of the European Union, which, at its recent summit, agreed on new and ambitious development assistance targets.

The commitments made in Monterrey, she said, were closely linked to the Millennium Goals, which represented the most ambitious development agenda ever established. A key achievement in Monterrey was the establishment of partnerships based on mutual commitments. To fully utilize the transferred resources, recipient countriesDevelopment Bank. If agreed by other donors and the Boards of the World Bank, the IMF and the African Development Bank in September, the deal could be worth up to $55 billion to 38 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In the end, however, the future of developing countries would rest in their own hands, as delivered good governance, created strong institutions and raised their own finance.

CARIN JÄMTIN, Minister for International Development Cooperation of Sweden, said Member States should challenge themselves to be as concrete as possible and to set clear timetables and deadlines. In the development arena, today’s meeting was among the most important. In September, governments should commit to fully implementing the Paris Declaration by 2010. Sweden would try to do so before then. She