Published on Monday, December 6, 2004 by OneWorld.net
45 Million Children To Die in Next Decade Due to Rich Countries' Miserliness
by Jim Lobe
Unless the world's wealthiest countries comply with their past
pledges, some 45 million children in the worlds poor countries will
die needlessly over the next decade, according a new report released
Monday by British-based development group, Oxfam.
Despite the fact that Group of Seven (G7) countries Germany, France,
Italy, Japan, Britain, the United States, and Canada are richer than
they have ever been, they are spending only half as much in real
terms in development assistance as they did in 1960, according to the
report, "Paying the Price."
Oxfam warned that rich nations need to do much more to overcome
global poverty. An activist representing U.S. President George W.
Bush (R) buries an Indian woman to represent farmers underneath
coffee, sugar and cotton sacks during a protest in Madrid, November
10, 2004. The NGO Oxfam claims that some 900 million people in rural
areas live in misery at the expense of richer nations maintaining
certain privileges. . REUTERS/Andrea Comas
And of the paltry assistance they do provide about US$50 billion a
year only about 40 percent of the money is actually spent in poor
countries; the rest of it is spent in the wealthy countries
themselves. Even, then, much of the aid is late in arriving.
"The world has never been wealthier, yet rich nations are giving less
and less," according to Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam's executive director.
"Across the globe, millions of people are being denied the most basic
human needs clean water, food, health care and education. People are
dying while leaders delay debt relief and aid."
Releasing the report on the eve of the launch of a global call to
action against poverty by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and
high-profile personalities around the world, Oxfam is pressing for
the G7 to immediately cancel all poor countries debt and double
development aid.
Failure to do so will almost certainly put the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) for reducing poverty out of reach, according to the
report. The entire membership of the United Nations agreed the Goals
in 2000.
The MDGs set forth eight specific benchmarks to be achieved by the
year 2015. They include achieving universal primary education,
halving the number of people living in hunger and on less than the
equivalent of one dollar a day; reduce by two thirds the mortality
rate of children under five and by three quarters the maternal
mortality rate; and halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidence of
other deadly diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis.
While the G7 agreed to these goals four years ago, their aid budgets
have not increased accordingly.
That failure is part of a pattern that began in 1970 when wealthy
countries agreed to spend 0.7 percent of their annual gross domestic
products (GDPs) at a special UN General Assembly development
conference.
While Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg have
reached and sustained that target for some time, none of the G7
members is even close, although France and Britain have at least set
a timetable for reaching it.
Indeed, in some countries, the amount of aid expressed as a
percentage of GDP, has actually fallen, particularly over the last
decade. At only 0.14 percent of GDP, U.S. foreign aid in 2003 ranked
dead last among all wealthy nations. In fact, its entire development
aid spending in 2003 came to only ten percent of what it spent on the
Iraq war that year. U.S. development assistance comes to less than
one-fortieth of its annual defense budget.
The G7's combined aid budgets expressed as a percentage of GDP in
2003 0.24 percent -- were only about half of what they were in 1960,
when they stood at 0.48 percent, according to the report.
"The scandal must end," said Hobbs. "Aid can get millions of children
into school, save millions of mothers from dying in childbirth and
lift even more out of poverty, but rich countries are failing the
poor."
Moreover, much of the aid is "tied" to purchases of G7 goods and
services and, thus are not even spent in poor countries, according to
the report. The worst offenders are Italy and the United States. More
than 90 percent of Italian aid is spent on Italian goods and
services, while about 70 percent of U.S. aid money is spent on U.S.
companies.
The problem, however, is not only about aid and where it is spent,
according to the report. The G7, which also exercises preponderant
power on the boards of the international financial institutions
(IFI), such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) through their weighted voting systems, could, if it wished,
cancel the unsustainable debt that is crippling the ability of the
world's poorest countries to meet the MDG targets. Most of the debt
is held by the IFIs.
Low-income countries paid $39 billion to service debts in 2003 and
received only $27 billion in new assistance; that is, for every two
dollars they received in aid, they had to pay back almost three
dollars to service debts that were often contracted by dictators
sustained in power largely as a result of Western or Soviet support
in the Cold War. In the vast majority of cases, the people of these
countries received virtually no benefit from what has become an
unsustainable debt burden.
As a result, at least ten of Africa's most indebted poor countries
are paying more on debt service than on health services for their
people, an especially difficult situation given the spread of
HIV/AIDS in the region.
NGOs have been pushing the G-7 and the IFIs for years to cancel the
debt and believed that they were on the cusp of victory at the
leaders' meeting in Georgia last summer. But the group could not
achieve a consensus as a result of which the issue has been kicked
over into next year.
In its latest report, Oxfam said that the revaluation or sale of the
IMF's gold reserves could raise more than $30 billion more than
enough to cancel all remaining debts of the worlds 40 poorest and
most indebted nations. It also noted that canceling the debt of 32 of
those countries would cost the equivalent of $2.10 for each person
living in rich countries per year.
The key to achieving the MDG targets thus lies both with increasing
aid and debt cancellation. The governments of developing countries,
according to the report, must also do their share spend 20 percent of
their budgets on basic social services designed to reduce poverty and
implement reforms designed to institutionalize democratic practices,
the rule of law, and policies that address the challenges faced by
the poor.
If, on the other hand, current trends are sustained over the next
decade, Oxfam estimates that 247 million more people in sub-Saharan
Africa will be living in absolute poverty; 34 million more will be
hungry; and 45 million children will have died.
"Unless world leaders act now to deliver a historic breakthrough on
poverty," said Hobbs, "next year will end in shameful failure."
Copyright © 2004 OneWorld.net
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http://www.oxfam.org/eng/pr041206_MDG.htm
6 December 2004
Paying the Price. Why rich countries must invest now in a war on
poverty - Dec 04
campaign report, pdf file 1,378 KB
http://www.oxfam.org/eng/pdfs/pp041206_MDG.pdf
Oxfam: Poor Are Paying the Price of Rich Countries' Failure
A new report from international agency Oxfam today reveals that 45
million more children will die needlessly by 2015, because rich
countries are failing to provide the necessary resources they
promised to overcome poverty.
The report, Paying the Price, finds that rich countries' aid budgets
are half what they were in 1960 and poor countries are paying back a
staggering $100 million a day in debt repayments. Oxfam also
calculates that 97 million more children will be out of school by
2015 unless urgent action is taken.
Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam's Executive Director, said:
"The world has never been wealthier, yet rich nations are giving less
and less. Across the globe, millions of people are being denied the
most basic human needs - clean water, food, health care and
education. People are dying while leaders delay debt relief and aid."
Oxfam is calling on the leaders of G8 countries - Germany, France,
Italy, Japan, UK, US and Canada - to make history in 2005 by
cancelling poor countries' debt and increasing aid, alongside action
to make trade fair.
Paying the Price comes on the eve of the launch of a global call to
action against poverty involving organizations and high-profile
figures around the world mobilizing to demand an end to poverty. It
warns that unless aid is increased by at least $50 billion now and
debts are cancelled, the internationally agreed Millennium
Development Goals will not be met.
In 1970 rich countries agreed to spend just 0.7 percent of their
incomes on aid. Thirty-four years later, none of the G8 members have
reached this target and many have not even set a timetable.
In addition, only 40 percent of the money counted officially as aid
actually reaches the poorest countries, and when it does it is often
seriously delayed. For example, 20 percent of the European Union's
aid arrives at least a year late and 92 percent of Italian aid is
spent on Italian goods and services.
At only 0.14 percent of national income, the US spending on foreign
aid in 2003 was one-tenth of what it spent on Iraq. The US won't
reach the aid target needed to halve world poverty until 2040.
Germany won't reach the target until 2087 while Japan is decreasing
its aid commitments.
Oxfam's Hobbs added:
"The scandal must end. Aid can get millions of children into school,
save millions of mothers from dying in child birth and lift even more
out of poverty but rich countries are failing the poor. This year
Zambia will spend twice as much on repaying its debts than it will on
educating its children.
"Unless world leaders act now to deliver a historic breakthrough on
poverty, next year will end in shameful failure."
Contact
For further information, please contact Caroline Green at Oxfam on +
1 202 321 7858 or + 1 202 496 1174.
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