Rich nations “must double aid budget to tackle poverty”

AS MANY as 45 million children will die needlessly over the next decade because rich nations are not giving enough money to tackle poverty, a new report claims.

The aid budgets of rich countries are half what they were in 1960, while poorer nations are paying back a "staggering" $100 million (€74m) a day in debt repayments, according to Oxfam.

The aid agency has urged rich countries like Ireland to double aid to poor countries, some of which will spend twice as much this year on repaying debts as on educating their children.

Last month, Oxfam Ireland condemned the Government for its decision to cast aside Ireland's commitment to reach the UN target of 0.7% of GNP by 2007.

The Cabinet decision to achieve 0.7% of GNP in Official Development Assistance was announced by the Taoiseach at the Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000.

This "absolute commitment" was then enshrined in the Programme for Government and the National Partnership Agreement Sustaining Progress.

"This is a betrayal of the world's poor and a squandering of our chance to lead the world in the fight against global poverty," said Dr Brian Scott of Oxfam Ireland.

However, according to Oxfam figures, Ireland is not alone in abandoning its commitment to the Third World.

The "meanest" donor is the United States, which is spending more than twice as much on the war in Iraq as it would need to increase its aid budget five-fold.

Oxfam director Barbara Stocking said: "As rich countries get richer, they're giving less and less.

"This is a scandal that must stop. The world's poorest children are paying for rich countries' policies on aid and debt with their lives."

Rich countries give half as much, as a proportion of their income, as they did in the 1960s.

In the years 1960-65, rich countries spent on average 0.48% of their combined national incomes on aid.

By 1980-85 they were spending just 0.34%.

By 2003, the average had dropped as low as 0.24%.

Oxfam said there is the chance of a "historic breakthrough" next year because of a G8 summit, a special session of the United Nations and a ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation.

G8 countries agreed to spend 0.7% of their incomes on aid in 1970, but none of them has reached this figure and many have not even set a timetable.

The report said: "Every day we see how aid and debt relief is getting children into school and paying for HIV treatment. Yet the amounts are tiny.

"This year Zambia will spend twice as much on repaying its debts than it will on educating its children. For rich countries, this is not about charity, it is about justice."