Responding to the World Development Indicators report released today by the World Bank which shows that sub-Saharan Africa is off-target, overall, on all Millennium Development Goals, Oxfam spokesperson Caroline Pearce, said:

"Despite huge progress in the last decade, this report lays bare the human cost of rich countries' failure to deliver on their aid promises. Aid increases have helped tens of millions more children attend school but more than 70 million of the poorest, mostly in Africa, are still denied a basic education."

"The education emergency in the poorest countries is not being properly dealt with in part because of problems with the world's education financing body, housed by the World Bank. Bank restrictions and red tape have resulted in unacceptable delays in getting money for education to poor countries.

"Funds languish in a bank account in Washington, when they are urgently needed to get children into school. Faster progress will be made on getting children into school when the Education for All - Fast-Track Initiative (FTI) is cut loose from the World Bank."

"Rich countries need to respond to the fresh challenges posed by the economic crisis by doing more to help poor people. That means finally delivering on their aid promises but also finding ways to do more. A tax on banks' financial transactions is a fair, feasible and fiscally sensible way to find the funds needed to reach the MDGs by 2015."