In an era of unprecedented prosperity, it is important to remember how unevenly this vast wealth is spread. More than 1 billion people -- one-fifth of the world's population -- must live on less than $1 a day; nearly half the population survives on twice that amount. There has long been agreement that something must be done to better their plight, but the devil has been in the details. The world took a step forward last week in Monterrey, Mexico, when leaders agreed on a plan that would help eliminate the worst disparities. The key task now is seeing that those promises are not empty ones, and that concerted efforts are made to create a genuine partnership among nations.

Nearly a year and a half ago many of those same leaders agreed at the Millennium Summit to use the first 15 years of the 21st century to launch a serious attack on poverty and its effects. They endorsed the Millennium Development Goals, a set of benchmarks in that war. They included halving income poverty in developing countries, halving the number of people who suffer hunger, universal primary education, reducing maternal mortality ratios by three-quarters, and reducing under-5 mortality rates by two-thirds, among others.

Achieving those goals requires an increase of at least $50 billion a year in official aid worldwide, twice the current amount. Yet, on average ODA as a percentage of donor countries' gross national product has been falling since 1992. According to the U.N. World Economic and Social Survey, in absolute terms, total aid has yet to return to its 1992 peak of over $60 billion. ODA fell from $56.4 billion in 1999 to $53.1 billion in 2000.