International forum spotlights global poverty

MONTERREY, Mexico (CNN) -- More than 50 world leaders convened in Monterrey, Mexico, this week in an effort to deliver more money to the globe's poorest people.

The summit on poverty, sponsored by the United Nations, is targeting the nearly 1 billion people around the world who subsist on less than $1 a day.

The goal for the conference has already been determined, but conference organizers say the international meeting is necessary to start a public discussion of a subject that, until now, has not been addressed at an international forum by heads of state.

The idea is to cut in half the number of people around the world who live on a dollar a day by 2015.

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"Their goal is to eradicate poverty, achieve sustained economic growth and promote sustainable development as they advance to a fully inclusive and equitable global economic system," said a U.N. press release.

Now, international leaders and dignitaries will have to wrestle over how to achieve such a lofty goal.

Already, some of the summit participants including the European Union and the United States are promising to increase aid donations, but even high-level U.N. officials concede it will be difficult to measure the success of the summit.

Also, some of the donor nations want to impose conditions of good behavior on those countries short of cash in return for the monetary boost.

"We will have to wait and see whether donor countries are prepared to put their money where their mouth is," said Executive Director of UNICEF Carol Bellamy, "and whether the poor countries are also prepared to re-shift some of their budgets to try and deal with some of the concerns of corruption."