Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Poverty relief targets still a long way off, says agency
Rich countries were urged yesterday to be more generous with their international aid and to take steps to ensure the financial help is spent more effectively.
The west's leading economic thinktank said the prospects of meeting the UN's targets for alleviating global poverty were being hampered by a lack of resources, poor targeting and duplication of effort.
In its annual review of development assistance, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said aid should be focused on the most needy nations and that western donors should be prepared to pool their resources.
The study backed the call by Gordon Brown for the west to spend more on aid in an attempt to help meet the UN goals for 2015 of halving the number of people living on less than a dollar a day, cutting infant mortality by two-thirds and putting every child in primary school.
"Aid can and must be used more effectively to provide healthier and more secure lives for the 1.1bn people in the world who live on less than a dollar a day," the OECD said in its development co-operation report.
The study found that aid flows from the 22 individual countries and the EU - which together provide the bulk of development assistance - rose slightly in 2003.
A total of $69bn (£37bn) was provided, up from $58.3bn in 2002, but the OECD said inflation and the weakening of the US dollar accounted for $7.9bn of the $10.7bn increase. Iraq saw its aid increase by $1.9bn as the US and Britain mobilised international support to rebuild the economy following the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
The OECD's country-by-country breakdown found that despite a 14% increase in aid during 2003, Britain's financial assistance amounted to 0.34% of the economy - less than half the UN target of 0.7% of national income.
Only five countries - Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden - met the 0.7% target in 2003, though the OECD said four other countries - Ireland, Belgium, Finland and France - had set firm dates to reach the UN benchmark.
"Overcoming poverty will require a quantum leap - more nationally driven strategies and policies supporting broad-based growth, trade and international policies that support development, more investment and more aid."
"To make the aid more effective, it must enhance the development goals of the recipient countries who are the ultimate owners of the plans and projects. These good practices have yet to become general practice."
Attempts by western countries to ensure that aid was spent wisely often put an onerous burden on poor countries, the OECD said. "Missions, co-ordination meetings, aid talks with donors, individually or collectively, and the like take up vast amounts of time in countries where the capacity to handle large inflows of assistance is often weak. None of this is popular with the public in either recipient or donor countries, though some of it does reflect continuing concerns about accountability on the side of donor countries."
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