Responding to an OECD review that predicts that in 2010, overseas aid will be a staggering $21bn lower than promised, Max Lawson, Oxfam senior policy adviser, said:
“Rich countries have no excuse for failing to deliver the aid increases they promised five years ago at Gleneagles. Overseas aid is more important than ever in the midst of an economic crisis that is pushing millions more people into poverty.
“These broken promises are nothing short of a scandal. A women dies every minute in childbirth somewhere in the world because of inadequate medical care and 72 million children remain out of school. The missing $21 billion could pay for every child to go to school, and could save the lives of 2 million of the poorest mothers and children.”
Unesco estimates it would cost $16bn each year to ensure that every child gets the chance to go to school and Oxfam calculates that $5bn would provide improved medical care that would save the lives of about 2 million mothers and children.
France, Germany and Italy are three of the countries who the OECD projections expect to miss targets. Collectively the EU-15 who are members of the OECD will miss their 0.51% aid target they committed to in 2005, with OECD projections putting them at just 0.48% average in 2010.
Lawson said: “Countries such as the UK, Spain and Belgium are demonstrating it is possible to show development leadership, and we still hope to see others like France, Germany and Italy stepping up in 2010.”
Issues we work on: debt and aid.