World turmoil overshadows General Assembly's main goal

African poverty takes back seat to economy, Iran, East-West relations.

UNITED NATIONS // The United Nations gathering of world leaders begins this week under the dark clouds of global economic turmoil, tense relations between East and West and Iran's controversial nuclear programme. Statesmen have begun congregating in New York for the annual General Assembly, which will this year address poverty in Africa and other parts of the developing world. But the rivalry between the US president, George W Bush, and his nemesis, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, and the presence of Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, could steal the spotlight.

Other leaders expected to draw attention are the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, following last month's conflict between the two countries over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Although politicians from both sides have dismissed talk of a new Cold War, the increasing self-assertion of Russia and the failure of Security Council members to pass any resolution on Georgia has created a palpable rift in East-West relations.

The speeches from leaders of the UN's 192 members, which begin Tuesday, are billed as the headline event, but sideline discussions between diplomats are where political realities are forged. Western countries seek to impose more sanctions against Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons programme, particularly after last week's International Atomic Energy Agency report, which said Iranian stonewalling had undermined investigations.

Diplomats are wondering whether the Georgia crisis will influence Russian co-operation on the Iranian nuclear issue during a meeting of foreign ministers planned for Thursday. There will also be a meeting on Friday of the so-called Middle East Quartet - the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations - to assess progress in reaching a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, has already expressed some concern that the current climate will overshadow the purpose of this week's debates - renewing commitments to a set of poverty-reduction targets called the Millennium Development Goals.

The eight goals on addressing poverty, disease and gender inequality are meant to be achieved by 2015, but UN reports this month highlight major funding gaps that could leave key targets unmet. Recent mayhem in world financial markets, in which the large US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the US government threw a lifeline of US$85 billion (Dh312bn) to American International Group, an insurer, is hardly likely to help, UN officials fear.

Mr Ban "is deeply concerned ? this could give a very serious negative impact to the overall capacity of the international community ? in realising the Millennium Development Goals," according to his spokeswoman, Marie Okabe. Traditional donor countries such as the United States, Japan and EU members have already reneged on development assistance pledges, according to critical UN reports made public this month.

In a bid to plug a $80bn funding gap, the UN is turning to the sovereign wealth funds of the GCC, China and other emerging regions, calculating that just one per cent of their estimated $3 trillion wealth could massively improve life for impoverished Africans. "It's a source of mobilising resources in order to meet the resource gaps of the continent," said Cheick Sidi Diarra, the UN's special adviser on Africa. "That is the aim of our discussions."

But Jan Randolph, head of sovereign risk for Global Insight, a financial consulting group, said it remains to be seen whether the wealth funds of the UAE and other oil-rich Gulf countries will target Africa. Mr Randolph said the funds are cautious investors that are still "trying to figure out how the credit crunch is going to play out", describing the $30bn cash injection the UN seeks as "an aspiration".

Nevertheless, Gulf wealth funds are already buying overseas farmland to gain food security and have responded to economic downturn in the West with "alternative investment strategies", the economist said. "Many of these sovereign wealth funds are commercially minded, but that shouldn't restrict them from African opportunities in the same way that other commercial investment has been made in Africa - and much of it will turn out to be quite lucrative," Mr Randolph said.

[e-mail] * With additional reporting by Reuters Editorial, page a23