“Missing: 75 billion for the world’s poor”
European governments’ aid efforts are continuing to fail the poor to the tune of 75 billion euros, a new report by CONCORD reveals.
“No Time to Waste”, a report published today by CONCORD, the European confederation of relief and development NGOs whose members represent over 1 600 NGOs supported by millions of citizens across Europe, reveals that on current trends the European Union (EU) will have given 75 billion less in aid by 2010 than it promised, threatening progress on the UN Millennium Development Goals set for 2015. If the recent record of slow progress continues, Europe will find it harder to meet its target with every year that passes.
“A hundred thousand estimated dead in Burma, food prices rocketing and a woman dying every minute in pregnancy or childbirth. Now, more than ever, European governments must deliver the aid they promised to the world’s poor“ says” Justin Kilcullen, President of CONCORD.
The official statistics, released by the OECD in April, showed that European aid fell sharply in 2007, with Belgium, France and the UK recording falls of 10-30%. The Dutch government has kept its promise and meet its target of 0.8% of GNI.
However, Dutch NGOs are concerned that the renewed government commitment to step up efforts to ensure gender equality as an integral goal of development cooperation is not matched by a similar financial commitment, as resources earmarked for gender issues remain a modest percentage of total ODA and aid channelled through multilateral agencies is not screened against the Gender Equality Policy Marker (an OECD DAC standard).
Dutch NGOs call on their government to:
- stop financing export credit debt cancellation from the ODA budget;
- ensure that gender equality is a key theme in all aid modalities; that it is included in all policy dialogues and planning; and that enough funding is provided to properly address gender issues;
- allow no backtracking but pursue progress on women’s right language, notably in relation to sexual and reproductive rights and property and inheritance rights;
- explicitly call for an end to all economic policy conditions.
>> Press release
>> Report ‘No Time to Waste’
>> Summary
>> Factsheet The Netherlands
