Donors promise US $905 million for Burundi

A two-day international donors' conference on Burundi ended on Thursday with a promise of US $905 million to support war recovery efforts, the UN Development Programme reported. Burundi's budgetary and balance-of-payments-support needs for 2002-2005, tabled at the Geneva conference, amount to $787.5 million, including the current debts for the period, estimated at $173.9 million. The country's remaining deficit to be cleared amounted to $340 million, in terms of budgetary and balance-of-payments aid. Burundi's planning ministry said $1.2 billion was needed for the country's social programme, a part of which should have been covered on the basis of pledges made at the December 2001 round-table conference in Geneva. This contains previous programmes for humanitarian aid, reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction, the fight against HIV/AIDS, and debt reduction. The UNDP said Burundi's economy was largely agricultural on which 90 percent of the country's 6.1 million people lived. The country ranks 171 among the poorest 175 nations in the world, according to the UNDP's World Human Development Index. The agency places life expectancy at 40.6 years, and says 13 percent of the population between 15 and 49 years are HIV positive. Debt service has reached 106 percent of the value of exports, compared to 98 percent the previous year. The country registered a drop of 20 percent in Gross Domestic Product, in real terms, during 1993-2001.