Poverty will not be eradicated without an immediate increase in international aid and an improvement to how that aid is directed. More and better aid is needed to:
- Help end extreme poverty
- Enable every child to attend primary school
- Reduce child mortality rates
- Improve maternal health
- Create decent jobs
- Begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Despite welcome commitments to increase aid, Australia can and should do more. In 2010, Australia ranked 16 out of 23 rich countries for the amount of aid given as a proportion of national income. We can and should do more. The Australian Government should join other rich countries by committing to a timetable for overseas aid as a proportion of Gross National Income (GNI) of 0.7%.
We can and should do more.
The Australian Government should join other rich countries by committing to a timetable for overseas aid as a proportion of Gross National Income (GNI) of 0.5% by 2010 and 0.7% by 2015.
More aid
Which countries have honoured their foreign aid commitments or have established a binding timetable to do so?
The list includes;
- United Kingdom
- Sweden
- Norway
- Netherlands
- Denmark
- Luxembourg
- France
- Finland
- Spain
- Belgium
Australia is not on this list. Although Australian aid is growing in volume, in historical terms it is not keeping pace with the increases in Australian wealth. We are richer as a nation than ever before, but we give a smaller proportion of our national wealth than we did, for instance in 1984, when over 0.47% of our Gross National Income was used for development assistance.
In 2007 the Australian Government committed to increasing the amount of aid we give to 0.5% of GNI by 2015. That commitment has been matched by the Opposition. However, this figure is still significantly lower than that pledged by other wealthy nations, which have committed to give 0.7%.
Better aid
Australia’s aid budget has risen every year since 2002 (after having been cut in the late 1990s and in 2001). For the first time, there is a multi-year commitment to increase aid to 0.5% by 2015. This commitment is very welcome, but it is just a first step if we are serious about “sparing no effort” to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
As well as promising to increase aid, the Australian Government has also promised to increase the focus on basic poverty issues. This includes increasing funding to health, education, water and sanitation. While this redirection of the aid budget is very welcome, more can be done.
However, even with this increased funding and renewed focus on health and education, we still won’t be doing our fair share in the global effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals unless we commit to aid reaching 0.7% of GNI.
Does aid work?
There is no doubt that overseas aid plays a major role in alleviating global poverty.
Examples of success include:
- Since 1990 global child deaths have dropped from 12.5 million to 8.8 million a year. Vaccination programs, better responses to diarrhoea and malaria as well as micronutrient supplements have all played a role in this improvement. Child mortality rates have dropped in every region including Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Since 2000 primary school enrolments have been growing at 6 times the rate of the 1990s. Thanks to additional aid and debt cancellation for many countries over 34 million extra children in developing countries are able now to attend and complete primary school. For example, after school fees were abolished, enrolment rose from 3.4 million to 5.7 million students in Uganda and from 5.9 to 7.2 million in Kenya. In Tanzania aid has supported policies to remove school fees, construct classrooms (particularly in remote areas) and provide text books – this has resulted in another 3 million kids in school.
- Over 4 million HIV/AIDS sufferers are now receiving antiretroviral drugs (up from 250,000 7 years ago) and millions of lives have already been saved.
Corruption is a serious and widespread problem in many developing countries – it reduces economic development and minimises domestic resources, diverts aid and hurts the poor most. The causes of corruption are complex and there is no “one size fits all” approach to dealing with corruption.
However, concerns about corruption should not stop the fight against poverty. Corruption should change how we give our aid, it shouldn’t determine whether we give aid.
Because corruption is both a cause and effect of poverty, giving aid to improve health, education and public administration will help to reduce corruption. As people become healthier, better educated, and more empowered to address their own community’s issues, they will be better able to hold their own governments to account and work to reduce corruption. Make Poverty History’s members who have international aid programs are united in working to hold governments accountable for delivering basic services and protecting the human rights of the poor. Government aid programs have also been taking new steps to minimise corruption in the delivery of aid
Even in countries where there is corruption, aid has contributed to the eradication of smallpox and the virtual elimination of polio, while debt relief has boosted spending on education and health.
Related Links
Resources from Make Poverty History members:
AusAID – regional distribution of aid
World Vision – “Does aid work?”
Resources by other international organisations:
