Development assistance is an investment in the future
Guest blog by J. Brian Atwood, Chair of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD). This blog originally appeared on the Huffington Post.
For the first time in ten years, the total development assistance of OECD member states slightly declined in 2011. The official development assistance (ODA) level had increased by 63% over the previous decade, but three years before the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, this decrease is troubling. Do we need to sound the alarm?
The situation today is problematic. The Euro-crisis and the prevailing austerity weigh on the budgets of donor countries. The European Union is currently negotiating its budget for the next seven years (2014-2020) and drastic cuts may be proposed by member states, including in assistance for the poorest countries. Yet the EU has ambitious goals and promises to keep, most importantly the promise to allocate 0.7% of its overall collective per capita growth to ODA.
We have achieved a great deal with the resources that have been committed in the past decade, but so much more was possible. The average member of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) dedicated only 0.46% [S1] of their GNI to development assistance, far from the 0.7% to which most are committed. If DAC governments had reached 0.7%, not only would we have come further on the MDGs, we would have a world with less conflict and fragility, and with stronger, more resilient developing economies that help sustain the world economy.
Pressure to maintain commitments is generated within the DAC by peers, but it is also applied by public advocacy groups like “ONE.” This organization assigned itself a much needed annual exercise: based on OECD/DAC figures, ONE brings the numbers down to an even more granular level. In its DATA report the organization tracks closely what the donors are doing. French readers, for example, will be interested to know that France reached an ODA level of 0.42% in 2011. This means that the country now needs to shift into high gear to keep its 0.7% promise. France is not alone in Europe, but it has been a leader in development cooperation and others are watching.
The impressive new Development Minister in France, Pascal Canfin, will have to make a strong case that development not only reflects France’s values and its traditional commitment to international development, but is also smart economics. Development prevents expensive conflicts where French military forces could be called to keep the peace. Development creates peace and prosperity, and with that, markets for French goods and services, while underdevelopment creates the opposite.
France plays a key role in the international arena; a role that the country needs to maintain given it has been one of the drivers of international development. Even though new donors are emerging, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, are bellwethers in Europe. These governments need to keep moving in the right direction on international development.
ODA may be a smaller proportion of the financial flows to the developing world, but it is a crucial piece of the global recovery puzzle. The mobilization of domestic resources in developing countries is also increasing. Over the last five years, tax revenues in Africa doubled to reach 520 billion US dollars. At the same time, the development cooperation programs of DAC members have served to encourage this growth in domestic revenues. The burden is being shared more widely, and the end of dependence on external finance has become a concrete prospect for an increasing number of countries. If ODA is less important as a source of finance, it is essential as a catalyst for the reforms and capacities that get development going. Growth today does not come from the old economic powers, it is in the developing world that we find the untapped potential. If we want growth in the OECD countries, we have to adopt a global perspective that encompasses the developing world.
The EU and its 27 member states account for 54% of ODA worldwide. Beyond the volume, however, the quality and effectiveness of development cooperation matters too. It is important to acknowledge the efforts made by the European Union also in this regard. The Agenda for Change and a new initiative calling for more joint programming among member states hold the promise of less fragmentation and better quality – and the ability to act together is what will ensure that the EU really remains the key player. The recent peer review study carried out by the DAC shows that there has been significant improvement in the EU’s capacity to deliver results. There is still work to be done to reduce bureaucracy and transaction costs, but the EU is functioning well in the development arena and it deserves the support of its members.
The DAC estimates development assistance to increase around 2% per year over the next few years. This may sound optimistic but some countries give us hope. The United Kingdom is on track to reach 0.7% by 2015, and Germany also increased its volume last year. Australia set the objective to reach 0.5% by 2015, an important increase for this growing economy. Will France join these nations and resume its rightful place as a leader in development cooperation? All eyes are on what the European Union and member states like France will do next.
Brian Atwood has chaired the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD since 1 January 2011. He was previously dean of the Hubert Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Under President Bill Clinton, he was the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1993 to 1999.
[S1]0.31% if the weighted mean. The average country effort is higher, around 0.46% (the weighted number is lower given that the big economies that have the most weight have lower ODA/GNI ratios)
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The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
23/07/2012 at 10:45 pm
My life experience on the township life-style thought me many things. One of them is this, money in pockets of the drinking
community members can be directed to at least one more highly rewarding use, just before it is spends on alcohol. There are
rich and affording members of the townships community. Members that drink alcohol need to consider redirecting their regular budget on alcohol to children’s supporting enterprises. This business enterprise can be designed such that customers (users) are harshly changed from their “normal” drinking habit. Alcohol consumption in the townships has happened to reduce the power/value for money. This drop in the value of money can be so severe up to the point where people loses lives and fights during the use of money. It is an undeniable truth that the moment the money is used on alcohol, it will lose its positive power(value loss). Alcohol consumption in the townships has been witnessed to give rise to poor child support, crime, negligence, health related hazards/accidents and
inactive workforce (unemployable citizens). In township a timber (preferable -suitability) constructed community dining place where healthy meals are promoted and
encourage in order to get rid of the current tendency of drinking large amount of alcohol in the empty
stomachs. Wine is ideal drink since it’s compliment meals perfectly.
Customers (community members) will have a safe, informal and relax environment for discussing constructively on the local matters
around them. A large amount of profit that will be generated through the dining activities will ensure a
continual and
sustainable well-being of children at their assemble point- the nearest local preschool. A transport (van),furniture,utensils and raw material (grocery and wine stock) will show case the practical use of this strategy and prove the agent requirement of units exponential growth to other townships, provincial to internationally. Immediate benefit are jobs, health and active workforce. The future benefits will be apparent as the well nourished children become adults- reduction on crime and corruption.
02/08/2012 at 12:18 am
I know this is not a way to have a new entry in the blog, but I have been following and I have been part of the actions spreaded by ONE org. nad I feel that I need to say something.
We all have to fight poverty, undevelopment, glñobal diseases and defend life.
Therefore my question is:
If we all have defend life why all of us,you, media, governments, and etc are silent if fornt of the massacre of thousnads of muslims in Burma? Why is it more imnpotnat to know that Obama will be reeleceted, that an insane man killed some”gringos”, that in some countries there are celebrations, strikes, etc?
Are those issues more importnat than human beings?
I send you this to read an sknow what happens in oiur real world too.I am not a muslim…I am a catholic…tjhose people need to be heard.Recat!!!!!
Burma Massacre
Project Burma Peace Appeal
World is silent on Burma Massacre
Posted by admin on July 24, 2012 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments
World silent as Muslim massacre goes on in Myanmar
Kourosh Ziabari
Mohammad Hossein Nikzad, a close personal friend and a senior student of political science just called me a few hours ago, worriedly talking about the dire situation of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and the atrocities the Buddhist Rakhines are committing in the East Asian nation.
He called my attention to the mainstream media’s flagrant inattention to the heartrending genocide of the Muslims in Myanmar, saying that they are only a few second-rate news websites and some of the Iranian news agencies which have given coverage to the course of events.
And unfortunately, he was right. My searching for factual reports and articles regarding the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar by the extremist Buddhists yielded no significant results. I only found some pictorial reports of the burning of Myanmarese children published by Iranian news websites, an article by Ramzy Baroud which was republished in some Asian newspapers and an editorial by Dr Ismail Salami on Press TV. Neither Reuters, nor New York Times, nor Washington Post, nor Fox News nor their comrades and cronies in France, Germany, Britain, Australia and Canada had uttered a single word regarding the painful days the Muslims of Myanmar are experiencing.
Rohingyas are a Muslim people living in the Arakan region. As of 2012, 800,000 Rohingyas live in Myanmar. The United Nations says that they are one of the most persecuted minorities of the world. As a result of systematic discrimination they have endured over the past years, many of them have migrated to Bangladesh and Malaysia and currently 300,000 Rohingya Muslims live in Bangladesh and 24,000 in Malaysia.
The persecution of the Rohingya Muslims dates back to the early World War II when the Japanese forces invaded Burma which was then under the British colonial rule. It’s said that on March 28, 1942, about 5,000 Muslims were massacred in Minbya and Mrohaung Townships by the Rakhine nationalists. According to Amnesty International, the Rohingya Muslims have long suffered from human rights violations and as a result, scores of them immigrated to neighbouring Bangladesh for better living conditions.
One instance of discrimination against the Muslims of Rohingya is that they are denied the right of citizenship by the government. Many of them have escaped to Bangladesh and as many as 111,000 of them live in the Thai-Myanmar border.
According to the website of Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO), Rohingya Muslims require government permission to marry, are forbidden from having more than two children per family and are subjected to modern-day slavery through forced labour. Because the national government denies them the right to citizenship in their homeland, many Rohingyas have their land confiscated and they are restricted from travel. The Human Rights Watch considers the denial of the right of citizenship the most important problem the Muslims of Rohingya face. The government of Myanmar considers the Rohingyas to be “resident foreigners.” This lack of full citizenship rights means that the Rohingya are subject to other abuses, including restrictions on their freedom of movement, discriminatory limitations on access to education and arbitrary confiscation of property.
Some independent sources have told the Human Rights Watch that the government authorities continue to require Rohingya Muslims to perform forced labour. According to HRW, those who refuse or complain are physically threatened, sometimes with death, and children as young as seven years old have been seen on forced labour teams.
But what brought to light the deplorable situation of the Rohingya Muslims once again was the “2012 Rakhine State riots” which led to the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims who were murdered by a Rakhine mob of 300 while on their way back from the country’s former capital Rangoon. It said that three Rohingya youths allegedly raped and killed a Rakhine woman and as the government sentenced two of them to death, a self-directed group of extremist Rakhine nationalists attacked a bus of Rohingya Muslims and killed ten of them. According to a group of UK-based NGOs, 650 Rohingya Muslims were killed from June 10 to 28, 1,200 went missing and more than 80,000 others were displaced as a result of rioting, arson and rape.
As reported by Associated Press, 1,336 homes belonging to the Rohingya Muslims were burnt during the unrest. However, The Platform, a UK-based human rights organisation puts the number at 6,000. The Burmese army and police were accused of playing a leading role in targeting the Rohingyas through mass arrests and arbitrary violence.
Due to a media blackout in Myanmar and the lack of direct access by the independent journalists to the region, it’s impossible to verify the number of those who have been killed or the homes which were destroyed in the recent riots; however, what is clear is that the Rohingya Muslims are undergoing intolerable hardships and should be paid due attention by the international community.
In the recent weeks, the Burmese opposition leader and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi made the headlines when it was announced that she finally delivered her Nobel acceptance speech at Oslo’s City Hall two decades after being awarded the prize and almost two years after being released from house arrest. Suu Kyi, however, unpardonably ignored the plight of the Rohingya Muslims and never spoke a word about the hardships and injustices that have befallen them.
In a blatant act of censorship, the Western mainstream media have also stayed away from the massacre of Rohingya Muslims, showing their strong anti-Muslim bias and their duplicitous attitude toward the concept of human rights.
The Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar are living under extremely appalling circumstances. The dictatorial government of Myanmar has deliberately neglected their ordeal and the international community is overlooking their suffering. Is it in compliance with our human values to remain indifferent and apathetic to this unspeakable tragedy? The Western mass media are run by a number of Islamophobes associated with the Israeli lobby. Isn’t it our duty to stand up and protest their indifference to the suffering of Myanmar Muslims?
http://www.burmamassacre.com/world-is-silent-on-burma-massacre/
Thanks ….