Aid

The provision of Aid to developing countries is one of the most powerful tools that are at a developing country’s disposal in the battle against world poverty and in the fight to achieve the Millennium Development goals. It is unfortunate, however, that this tool has yet to be used to its full capacity.

Over 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day, and one third of world deaths are due to poverty related causes. Can you imagine that? One in every three deaths is due to Extreme Poverty and not war or any other popularly thought of disasters.

These figures of extreme poverty cannot be reduced without the immediate and substantial increase in international aid. Though many countries have honoured their foreign aid commitments or have created a binding timetable, many have yet to live by their promises. Aid has been provided by roughly 22 members of the OECD, known as the Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

Targets and agendas have been set, and almost all rich/developed nations, year after year, constantly fail to reach their agreed obligations of providing aid worth 0.7% of their Gross National Income and instead on manage to provide around 0.2 to 0.4% of their GNI, some $100 billion short.

0.7% is such a small percentage of a countries national income. Yet when combined with the countries of the world can provide enough funding to alleviate poor countries out of poverty. For example 0.7% of the USA’s national income per year is 25 Billion US Dollars. Just imaging how many people could be fed with that much money, how many jobs it could create, how much medicine it could buy, how many children it could educate and how many disasters it could prevent.

However an increase in the quantity of development aid, from rich nations, is not the only important factor. An equal if not more important issue is accountability.

Corruption is a big problem in many developing countries as much of the aid that is received is lost to corruption, moving into private Swiss bank accounts rather then to the people dying in these countries. This happens as a result of an absence of a fair and credible justice system. It is important that rich nations do not stop providing aid as a result of this but demand accountability instead.

As well as that, many countries still administer aid that ties them to the distributing country. In other words, many countries provide aid with so many strings attached that it prevents it undermines the success of the aid program itself.

Such failure was eminent in Tanzania, where aid to the country was made on the condition that the water system in the capital of Dar Al Salaam was privatized. Naturally, increased prices forced the poorer population to become exceedingly vulnerably to water borne diseases such as cholera. Such policies undermine the long term successes of a poverty reducing aid program. It is therefore our initiative to stress the importance of a fair long term program that will ensure economic development and growth, whilst maintaining global human rights obligations.

This is why the campaign demands both quality and quantitative aid without strings attached as well as accountability on the parts of those nations receiving the aid.