Europe’s promise to Africa
One of the most important things we try to do here at ONE is hold leaders accountable for their promises to the world’s poorest countries. Each year we release a scorecard of how well the wealthiest countries are doing against their commitments – it’s called the DATA Report.
For six years, the DATA report tracked progress against the Gleneagles commitments made by the G7 in 2005. Those commitments expired in 2010. So this year the DATA Report turns its attention to the European Union and its bold commitments to continue increasing development assistance up to 2015.
With the economic crisis bringing austerity to much of Europe, this year’s report is especially important. In times of plenty it is easy to be generous – but in times of crisis, keeping those promises counts more than ever.
The 2012 DATA report reveals that some of the poorest people are paying the price of the economic crisis. Aid from the European Union declined last year for the first time since 2002, with fourteen EU countries cutting their aid. Aid promises to Africa are well off-track. Perhaps unsurprisingly the biggest cuts come from countries most hit by the crisis, namely Spain and Greece.
But that isn’t the whole story. The report also shows that some countries are protecting aid. Germany, Sweden, Italy and Belgium all succeeded in increasing aid last year. The Netherlands and Ireland have so far protected their promises to the poorest people during the crisis. And the UK remains on track to meet its promise to reach 0.7% of national income in aid from March 2013.
Some may argue the Europe has no choice but to cut aid during the crisis. However the economic crisis also puts into perspective Europe’s promises to Africa. European leaders leveraged €100 billion in a few days for a short-term fix to tide over Spanish banks. That’s five times the amount needed to deliver Europe’s promise to Africa from now to 2015. This aid could achieve so much – if invested in agriculture for example, if could lift over 20 million people out of poverty. It’s a sum of money that is small change in the context of European spending, but could make a very big difference to the lives of those in poverty.
There is an opportunity very soon for European leaders to start to turn this around. Leaders are beginning to negotiate the next European budget. Out of a proposed €1 trillion seven-year budget, €51 billion – just five per cent – is earmarked to help fight poverty. It is vital that even as leaders try to reduce the overall budget, they protect this amount.
When Merkel, Hollande, Cameron and the rest of Europe’s leaders meet in Brussels this weekend, the 2012 DATA report must be a reminder to them that their promises to Africa have not been forgotten.
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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.
26/06/2012 at 9:47 am
Adrian
Good to see you are still as strong as ever for justice for the world’s poor.
Perhaps the rich nations have disappointed somewhat in keeping the promises made at Gleneagles in 2005 but this is nothing in comparison with the failure of African leaders to keep to their promises made at that G8 summit. There they re-iterated the promises that were made when the African Union was set-up in 2002 to work to promote economic growth of 7%+, promote good government and human rights, strengthen the rule of law and clamp down hard on corruption. And in that most African governments have failed.
Of course you may come back and state that many African countries are already growing strongly thanks to the international demand for natural resources. That is true but there are few new jobs being created and this new wealth is not being shared out as the gap between the rich and poor is widening. At the same time there are ever more mouths to feed.
If all African governments were as determined as Rwanda to forge economic growth and to clamp down hard on corruption throughout the country we would soon start to see a new Africa. That is what is needed in all African countries but sadly most governments there are nowhere near emulating Paul Kagame’s government. Some are not even trying.
By all means let ONE continue to cajole Western governments to meet their aid commitments but ONE needs even more so to confront inept governance in Africa and to encourage the reformers and be seen openly to be doing this. For for far too long governance has been the African elephant in the room. And if Africans are to prosper it won’t be through overseas aid but by good governance working for all of the people.
http://www.just1world.org