Larry Elliott :
The battle to eliminate extreme poverty will require rich western nations to step up their financial help and spend at least half their aid budgets in the world’s poorest countries, a leading development campaign group said on Tuesday.
ONE, the organisation co-founded by U2 frontman Bono, said donor nations should reverse the trend of recent years that has seen only 30% of assistance go to the 37 least-developed countries (LDCs).
“Total overseas development assistance flows to the least-developed countries have been in worrying decline in recent years. In 2014, total overseas development aid to LDCs fell by 2% compared with 2013 and by 6% compared with 2010,” ONE said in a report designed to pressure the G8 leading western nations before their summit in Germany next month.
It added that only one country directed more than 50% of its overseas development aid to LDCs in 2014 – Iceland. If the 24 rich countries that sit on the OECD’s development assistance committee had allocated half of their budgets to LDCs in 2014, it would have made an additional $26.5bn (£17.1bn) available to the world’s poorest countries, the report added.
Donor nations have generally failed to fulfil the promise made at the Gleneagles summit of 2005 to meet the UN target of spending 0.7% of national income on aid. Only five countries – Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark and Britain – achieved the 0.7% level in 2014, and aid budgets were skewed to parts of the world where western nations had strong historical links or where there was geo-political or security reason for providing help.
ONE said that 2015 would be a crucial year, with a conference in Addis Ababa on providing the finance for development followed in September by a meeting of the UN that will set 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030.
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“A new set of global goals … will set out the path to a fairer, more prosperous world and an end to extreme poverty. But goals alone are not enough – need a clear plan of action and the determination to deliver it.”
ONE added that the conference in the Ethiopian capital would be the “pivotal point of the year”. It would require governments, civil society and businesses to provide additional aid, curb the illicit financial flows and corruption that strip countries of precious development resources, and improve transparency and accountability.
The campaign group called for a mutual accountability pact to meet the basic needs of the poorest people, which would require the mobilisation of international and domestic resources. The pact would include minimum spending levels on essential services of $300 per person in the 27 LDCs by 2020; increased domestic government revenues; increased aid targeted at the poorest countries; specific investments in agriculture, infrastructure, energy and technology; and mechanisms to ensure commitments are kept to.
ONE added it was important that anti-poverty efforts concentrated on improving the lives of girls and women.
“Poverty and gender inequality go hand in hand: girls and women in the poorest countries suffer a double hardship, of being born in a poor country and being born female. Put simply, poverty is sexist. Across virtually every measurable indicator, life is significantly harder for girls and women in LDCs compared with men, and compared with girls and women living in other countries,” it said.
(Larry Elliott Economics editor, The Guardian )
