BETTER AID MEANS BETTER DEVELOPMENT
Our joint appeal for more sanity in global development co-operation is a reflection of our shared fear that the world will miss an important opportunity to fix what is wrong. We are looking both to the G-20 Summit in Cannes from November 3-4 and a few weeks later the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan to ensure that this doesn't happen, write Brian Atwood, Chair of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee and Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director, Oxfam International.
With Western economies and political systems under tremendous strain, will it be more convenient to sweep the needs of the developing world under the carpet? Our guess is that the G-20 leaders in Cannes will understand that effective development can calm the volatile food and energy markets, alleviate climate and security threats, and give hope to the billions of people who are jobless or suffering from poverty, hunger, disease, and other injustices.
We trust that G-20 leaders will give a mandate to the High Level Forum to create new and more effective global partnerships with developing countries, donors from developed and emerging economies, the private sector, and civil society organizations. The current system of development co-operation is improving, but the process is too slow. Governments are still failing to follow through on the promises of more effective aid they made at previous OECD meetings. Some estimates indicate that about 30% of aid from all sources may be being wasted due to fragmentation and too little coordination. Meanwhile, latest trends on reaching the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 show the world falling far behind.
(*) Brian Atwood, Chair of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee and Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director, Oxfam International.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service