Downturn to Cost Billions in Aid to World's Poor

In Kenya, Charles Mwangi Waituru, country coordinator for the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, says the financial crisis will slow progress towards U.N. benchmark targets for reducing extreme poverty, which have a deadline of 2015.

"We are going to see drawbacks in key campaigns against poverty, disease and the new burden of climate change," he said. "In the long run the Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved in the stipulated time frame."