Oscar Romero

Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador was a great hero of the struggles for liberation in Latin America during that region's "long dark night," a period lasting from the 1960s through the 1980s. He was an archbishop very briefly, a mere three years, 1977-1980, and he was an unlikely hero. The upper hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America was firmly allied with the economic and political elite. But Archbishop Romero emerged as the "voice of the oppressed" in El Salvador after he reached the pinnacle of that hierarchy. His remarkable transformation into a defender of the poor and oppressed when he had reached such a privileged professional and institutional status marks him as one of the most extraordinary figures in history.
They took stock of progress made toward the Millennium Development Goals in the last five years, and examined the realities we face if the MDGs are to be met in the next decade.
The UN Summit has come and gone. But the momentum it generated should not be lost. Reducing poverty in African and other developing countries worldwide is not an issue that the international development community can embrace only during global conferences. It is a task that demands an ongoing commitment. As a partner in the global effort to reduce poverty, the International Monetary Fund is fully committed to doing its part to help countries meet the MDGs and halve extreme poverty by 2015.
Most importantly, low-income countries need to put in place policies that promote economic growth, for it is growth that drives development and poverty reduction. There are three prerequisites to achieving growth: economic and financial stability, policies that help the private sector flourish, and support from the international community. Africa's share in global trade has declined from 4 percent in the 1970s to about 2 percent at present. Indeed, all countries, including developing countries, need to work together to lower trade barriers and eliminate trade-distorting
A breakthrough in these negotiations would help lift millions of people out of poverty and boost growth throughout Africa.
But developing countries also need more—and better targeted—aid. The recent pledges of the G8 countries to increase aid, particularly for Africa, are indeed welcome. The IMF has long advocated increasing aid flows to developing countries. As the 2005 Global Monitoring Report the second such report prepared by the World Bank and IMF concludes, aid needs to double in the next five years if progress toward the MDGs is to accelerate as it needs to do.
Aid is really effective only when it is aligned with recipients' priorities and is predictable, and donors must make sure that aid does not create unreasonable administrative demands on recipients. Low-income countries, for their part, face significant challenges when aid rises.And they have to ensure that the capacity of their public services is not overstretched. They must also make sure that aid flows do not have unintended economic effects—large aid flows can result in an appreciation of a country's currency, making exports less competitive, or causing an increase in