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Article Excerpt
Aid is not the solution to global poverty; it's part of the solution but not the whole solution. There are others who argue that aid is part of the problem.
For more than three decades, the world's richest countries have been promising to devote 0.7% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to foreign aid. That target was set in the 1960s by a commission headed by Lester Pearson, Canada's Prime Minister from 1963 to 1968.
In 2003, the most recent year for which statistics are available all the world's rich nations donated 0.25% of their GDP to aid. A small number of countries--Denmark and Sweden are stand outs--have reached and even exceeded the 0.7% level. The vast majority, including Canada, have never hit the target.
In 2005, poverty reduction is set to dominate the global policy-making agenda. The issue is supposed to be at the top of the list for discussion when the leaders of the Group of Eight (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus Russia) meet in July. A special summit on the topic is scheduled for the United Nations General Assembly in September.
But, poverty-reduction has been flavour of the year before. The record in Canada is typical.
In 1969, Ottawa committed itself to meet the UN goal of providing aid equal to 0.7% of its GDP. Progress towards that goal was made in the 1970s, but it was never reached. By 1993, Canada's aid was 0.46% of the country's GDP. Then came the assault on the deficit. Government spending was slashed and international development aid did not escape the axe. By 2003, our aid was down to 0.26% as a percentage of GDP.
The government of Prime Minister Paul Martin now says it will double its aid budget by 2010. That will bring it back to about the level of 1993; still a long way from the promise of 1969.
But, Canada...
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