Agenda for Change: In whose interest?

The European Commission is seeking to attach more conditions to development aid and restrict it to fewer recipients. This is the message that is set out in the Commission Communication entitled ‘Agenda for Change’ adopted on 13 October. The most prominent innovation is the concept of ‘differentiated partnerships’ by which different countries will be eligible for different forms of assistance mechanisms. The Agenda emphasizes good governance as a more important prerequisite for development assistance and also focuses on the concept of inclusive growth — with development effects reaching those most in need.

This however seems to be counter to the goal included in the Age for Change of reducing the recipient countries. Middle-income countries where a large segment of the population lives below the poverty line would no longer be recipients of development aid. “Unfortunately the most important change in Piebalgs’ new agenda is that aid to the world’s poorest is being cut, diverting funds towards energy and private sector investments which are in the interest of the EU only, not the developing world,” says Concord Director, Olivier Consolo. Concord also highlights that poverty has not disappeared from countries now classified as middle income and these poor should not face reductions because of these categorizations.

Head of Oxfam International’s EU Office, Natalia Alonso, similarly points towards the negative implications this will have on the poor living in middle-income countries. Moreover, she calls attention to the limits of the private sector in its role in development. “We cannot sit on our hands and assume that the benefits of the private sector will simply trickle down and reach those most in need”, says Alonso. Concord also mentions that although the private sector can be beneficial for development, Official Development Assistance (ODA) should not be used “to guarantee private sector risk or to substitute public services.”

The Agenda for Change is accompanied by a paper on budget support outlining some of the implications it has on this modality of aid delivery. Oxfam International’s EU Office welcomes the EU determination to continue to use this system for poverty reduction objectives, but also warns against a politicization of aid that can result from more requirements. “We are surprised that the Commission suggests attaching more political conditions to recipient countries. Budget support must remain a poverty-reduction tool – not a political one”, stresses Natalia Alonso.

CONCORD welcomes EU budget increase for development

Proposals for the 2014 to 2020 EU budget released on 29 June by the European Commission, revealed a planned increase in external spending from €56 billion to €70 billion. CONCORD, the European NGO confederation for relief and development, welcomes the renewed commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. "The European Commission has shown courage in difficult times. It’s putting its money where its mouth is on giving priority to development," said Olivier Consolo, Director of CONCORD.

CONCORD welcomes in the EU budget:
* the proposal to include a clear commitment to the 0.7% GNI development aid targets along with a clear focus on poverty eradication based on democracy, human rights, equality and the respect for the UN Charter and international law.
* a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) to generate own EU resources.
* climate action as a core priority.

CONCORD calls:
* on Member States to support the proposal on development funding levels and to take responsibility at national level to meet their MDG commitments.
* for the new budget not to be used as an opportunity to cut aid to emerging and middle income countries where three quarters of the world’s poor live. Poverty eradication and fighting inequalities must be central to development cooperation.
* funds raised with a FTT must go to tackle poverty and climate change.
* for climate financing to be additional to official development assistance (ODA) commitments already made.

Civil Society Organisations are widely recognized as having a central role in development cooperation which must be translated by including them in the EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) negotiations. A CONCORD paper on the main MFF Priciples can be found >>> here.

Greece: Financial crisis hits development organisations

SocialWatch – The Hellenic Platform for Development has lost half of the dozen non-governmental organisations that used to integrate it. Many of them had to shut down due to the lack of finance to maintain their staff and to continue their operations, warned KOPIN, the national focal point of SocialWatch in Malta, which expressed its solidarity with that network. Due to the national and global financial crisis, the Greek national development agency Hellenic Aid is not in a position to honour the financial commitments it has made over the previous years to support the organisations working in the fields of global poverty eradication, education and humanitarian relief in Greece and many countries.

One of the organisations that have been hit by the Greek crisis is KOPIN’s partner European Perspective. Both have implemented a highly successful project called Mediterranean Development Network (MEDEVNET), together with the Local Council of Valletta, the National Platform of Maltese Non-Governmental Development Organisations (SKOP), the Migrants’ Solidarity Movement, the Cypriot NGO Future Worlds Center and other partners in Greece and Cyprus. This project was the first of its kind to build the capacities of and to establish networks between civil society organisations and local authorities in the three countries, to more effectively and, equally important, to jointly contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

In fact, the project’s activities saw the participation of over 60 Maltese individuals representing Maltese development and migration NGOs, local councils, ministries, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Malta-EU Steering & Action Committee (MEUSAC).

Reflection group on global development launched

An alliance of civil society groups, networks and foundations, including Third World Network, Social Watch, DAWN, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, Global Policy Forum, terre des hommes, and the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, has launched the Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives. The group (>>> www.reflectiongroup.org) consists of about 15 leading civil society activists, experts and academics from around the globe. The group will assess conventional and alternative models of development and well-being, reconsider development goals and indicators, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), draw conclusions for future development strategies and provide specific policy recommendations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012.

The Group starts its work at a crucial point in time – fast approaching the 2015 deadline for the MDGs, while preparing for the 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development. Today’s unprecedented coincidence of global crises – economic, financial, food and climate – reveals the dead end to which the dominating models of development have led. “It is now time to break old ground, to draw lessons from these crises and to fundamentally rethink our goals and measures of development and social progress – in North and South”, says Jens Martins who is a group member. “The time between the Summits 2010 and 2012 provides a unique window of opportunity to reconsider the current development paradigm and to develop strategies towards a holistic, rights-based approach of global development and well-being.”

Four meetings of the Reflection Group are scheduled to take place throughout 2011. The expected outcome will be presented in a report to be published prior to the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

Group Members
Barbara Adams (Global Policy Forum, US), Beryl d’Almeida (Abandoned Babies Committee, Zimbabwe), Alejandro Chanona Burguete (National Autonomous University of México), Chee Yoke Ling (Third World Network, China), Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker (Germany), Filomeno Santa Ana III (Action for Economic Reforms, Philippines), George Chira (terre des hommes India), Gigi Francisco (Development Alternatives with Women for the New Era, Philippines), Henning Melber (Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Sweden), Jorge Ishizawa (Proyecto Andino de Tecnologias Campesinas, Peru), Karma Ura (Centre for Bhutan Studies, Bhutan), Roberto Bissio (Third World Institute/Social Watch, Uruguay) Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Tebtebba Foundation, Philippines), Yao Graham (Third World Network-Africa, Ghana), Jens Martens (Global Policy Forum Europe, Germany), Hubert Schillinger (Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, Germany), Danuta Sacher (terre des hommes Germany)

G20 must create new Seoul development consensus

Growth is necessary but not sufficient to lift poor people out of poverty, international agency Oxfam said as it published a briefing paper calling on the G20 to agree an historic new Seoul development consensus to help the world’s poorest. The paper, The Making of a Seoul Development Consensus, shows that people living in extreme poverty largely missed out on the benefits of growth in the last two decades of the 20th century. The poorest received only 1.5% of the $1.9trillion additional global gross domestic product (GDP) even though they accounted for a third of the world’s population at the start of the period. Today, the poorest 40% get just 5% of the world’s income.

By contrast, the poorest have been hit hard by the recent global slump with the World Bank estimating that 64 million have been pushed into poverty by the crisis and the poorest countries suffering a $65bn fiscal hole, forcing them to make cuts to health, education and agriculture spending. This comes at a time when millions of poor people are already struggling as a result of increased food prices and extreme weather linked to climate change.

G20 officials are meeting in Seoul on Thursday and Friday this week to lay the foundations of the G20’s approach to development ahead of the Heads of State summit next month. Jasmine Burnley, Oxfam policy adviser and co-author of The Making of a Seoul Development Consensus, said: “These startling statistics show the scale of the failure of the discredited Washington consensus and the need for G20 leaders to break with the past and provide real global economic leadership in tackling poverty. Economic growth is vital to help poor people escape poverty, but history teaches us that it is not enough on its own. We need to see a new Seoul Consensus that not only drives economic growth but is sustainable and ensures the poorest receive a fair share of the benefits.

“The G20 should ensure that investment in agriculture, free health care and education are stepped up, not reduced in response to the economic crisis. Malaria alone costs Africa $12bn each year in lost revenue and improvements in education are clearly linked to increases in GDP. In this way helping the poorest will boost the global economy to the benefit of all.”

Oxfam is calling on G8 countries to meet their existing promises to increase overseas aid. It also wants the G20 to take action to fix the hole in poor countries’ budgets by introducing a financial transaction tax on the banks, hedge funds and other institutions whose greed did so much to cause the economic crisis. Burnley said: “It cannot be right that while banks have received trillions in state bailouts poor countries are left without any alternative but to slash essential services to the poor as a result of a crisis they did nothing to cause. Taxing the financial sector is the fairest way to protect the poorest from the damage done by the global financial elite.”

* Please find the report >>> here.

EU aid own goals pushing MDGs out of reach

EU Member States are missing their official development aid targets and jeopardising global efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals, reveals a new report published today by CONCORD, the European confederation of development NGOs. The report, Penalty against Poverty: More and Better EU aid can score Millennium Development Goals, is being released as EU leaders are set to meet in Brussels next week to agree their common position for the United Nations’ MDG Summit in New York this September.

‘Penalty against Poverty’ finds that EU development aid in 2009 amounted to €49bn or 0.42% of national income – €1bn less than 2008 levels. Official estimates for 2010 put total EU aid at 0.46% of national income, far short of the 0.56% target for 2010 agreed by member states back in 2005. In real terms, this represents a shortfall of €11bn in funding with some of the EU’s biggest economies – Italy (€4.5bn), Germany (€2.6bn) and France (€800m) – amongst the worst offenders.

“EU aid efforts are being crippled by a crisis of commitment. In 2005 EU leaders committed to allocating 0.7% of their national income to fight global poverty but 5 years later they are well off-track on aid and abandoning their international commitments on aid effectiveness”, said Hussaini Abdu, Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria. “We are not asking them to get more ambitious about fighting poverty, just keep their existing promises on aid quality and quantity”, he said

The annual AidWatch report notes that although inflated aid figures continued to decline compared to 2008 levels, a staggering €3.8bn of inflated aid – or 8% of the total EU amount – was reported in 2009. This includes €1.4bn for debt cancellation, €1.5bn in student costs and €0.9bn spent on refugees in donor countries – making real EU development aid only 0.38% of European GNI.

“EU aid is €19bn short of what was promised to developing countries by 2010 to help them meet the MDGs – more than half the estimated extra €32bn required per year globally to meet the hunger goal alone”, said Justin Kilcullen, President of CONCORD. “This is very disappointing from a bloc that calls itself a leader on global development”, added Eduardo Sánchez, President of the Spanish NGO platform. “Europe’s credibility as a global leader on development is at stake. If EU leaders are serious about regaining the trust of poor countries, they must come up with an ambitious MDG action plan next week”, said Elise Ford, head of Oxfam International’s EU office.

Representing over 1,600 European NGOs, CONCORD calls on EU governments to keep their promises to deliver more and better EU development aid. EU leaders must commit to legally-binding yearly timetables stating how aid targets will be met and find new ways to raise money for development such as a financial transaction tax which would bring estimated yearly revenue of €215bn - €1tr at no extra cost to the tax payer. Europe must put an end to the inflation of aid figures and place developing countries and their citizens at the centre of efforts to meet the MDGs.

G20 must seize this moment to make the world a fairer place

A global bank tax to help poor countries survive the economic crisis must be urgently agreed, Oxfam said ahead of the G20 meeting of finance ministers in Busan, South Korea. International development agency Oxfam is pressing for a bank tax that will raise a minimum of $200 billion per year globally to help pay for the impact of the crisis on the poorest and for the costs of climate change, and which will raise the same amount for rich countries to spend on domestic priorities.

Oxfam spokesperson Mark Fried said: “This is a once-in-a generation opportunity for the G20 to reshape the global economy in favor of poor people. We can never return to a situation where the greed of the richest takes precedence over the needs of billions. However the G20 chooses to structure the tax, it should bail out not banks, but the world's poorest people. A financial sector tax is the best option to deliver the scale of resources needed to recover from the financial crisis. The G20 must now seize the moment and deliver a tax that will to raise resources to tackle poverty and climate change. Finance ministers meeting this week must agree a roadmap for taxing the financial sector, and close the deal at their upcoming Canada summit.”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave its preliminary report on a financial sector tax to G20 finance ministers in April. The IMF proposal is two taxes to repay the costs of the global economic crisis and to pay crises to come: a levy payable by all financial institutions, and a tax on their profits and pay. The G8 has broken its promise of $50 billion in aid to poor countries by 2010, and 50,000 more children in Sub-Saharan African countries died last year because of the financial crisis.

Broken promises: Aid shortfall of $21bn

Aid to developing countries in 2010 will reach record levels in dollar terms after increasing by 35% since 2004. But it will still be less than the world’s major aid donors promised five years ago at the Gleneagles and Millennium+5 summits. Though a majority of countries will meet their commitments, the underperformance of several large donors means there will be a significant shortfall, according to a new OECD review. Africa, in particular, is likely to get only about $12bn of the $25bn increase envisaged at Gleneagles, due in large part to the underperformance of some European donors who give large shares of official development assistance (ODA) to Africa.

In 2005, the 15 countries that are members both of the European Union and of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) committed to reach a minimum ODA country target in 2010 of 0.51% of their Gross National Income (GNI). Some will surpass that goal: Sweden, with the world’s highest ODA as a percentage of its GNI at 1.03%, is followed by Luxembourg (1%), Denmark (0.83%), the Netherlands (0.8%), Belgium (0.7%), the United Kingdom (0.56%), Finland (0.55%), Ireland (0.52%) and Spain (0.51%) – all figures are in 2004 dollars and relate to net ODA. But others will fall short: France (0.46%), Germany (0.40%), Austria (0.37%), Portugal (0.34%), Greece (0.21%), and Italy (0.20%).

Other DAC countries made varying ODA commitments for 2010, and most, but not all, will fulfil them. The United States pledged to double its aid to sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2010. Canada aimed to double its 2001 International Assistance Envelope level by 2010 in nominal terms. Australia aimed to reach $A4bn. New Zealand plans to achieve an ODA level of $NZ600m by 2012-13. All four countries appear on track to meet these objectives. Norway will maintain its ODA level of 1% of its GNI, and Switzerland will likely reach 0.47% of its GNI, exceeding its previous commitment of 0.41%. Japan’s Gleneagles promise was to give $10bn more over the period 2005 – 2009 than if they had stayed at their 2004 base-line. In 2008 it was still $4bn short of this undertaking. Japan’s ODA for 2010 is not yet known, and the OECD calculations are based on an assumption that it will maintain the same level as in 2008.

Overall, these figures result in additional aid of $27bn from 2004 to 2010, but a $21bn shortfall between what donors promised in 2005 and the OECD estimates for the 2010 outcome. Of this shortfall, $17bn is the result of lower-than-promised giving by the donors and $4bn is the result of lower-than-expected GNI because of the economic crisis. All these figures are estimates based on countries’ national 2010 aid budget plans where available and on early GNI estimates.

Bernard Kouchner suggests a tax on foreign exchange transactions

As French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner stressed, development aid is a crucial tool to fight the impact of the recent financial turmoil on developing countries but not enough. According to him, innovative development funding is decisive, especially in the areas of education, health and environment. A pilot group in charge of thinking about solidarity contributions in favour of development was established in 2006 following an initiative from France, Brazil, Spain and Norway. The pilot group is a kind of think-tank and gathers 58 countries to which NGOs and international organisations are associated. France is currently chairing the group which gathered on 28 and 29 May in Paris.

Following a suggestion by Bernard Kouchner, a working group has been created to evaluate the technical and legal feasibility of a tax on foreign exchange transactions. The implementation of this tax could save millions of lives as well as facilitate the funding of global common goods in order to resolve the economic, social and environmental issues created by globalisation. This tax would not really affect the global economy as only 0.005% would be taken from foreign exchange transactions. According to Alain Joyandet, the French Secretary of State for Cooperation, between $30bn and $60bn per year could be raised through such a tax.

France and Belgium have already established a legal framework: France passed a law in December 2001 imposing this tax, but it will come into effect only if it is enforced at the European Union level; Belgium did the same in 2004. Civil society actors, mainly NGOs, are supporting the proposal: According to Jean-Louis Vielajus, president of Coordination SUD, "NGOs have asked the implementation of a tax on foreign exchange transactions for several years. We rejoice with the support of Bernard Kouchner and Alain Joyandet and urge them to bring this question at the European level and within the United Nations."

However, much effort remains to make the proposal a reality. The proposal of Bernard Kouchner has met the opposition of the French Economy Minister, Christine Lagarde, who declared that "nothing is prepared for the moment". Instead, she encouraged governments to implement taxes on airplane tickets (also known as "Chirac Tax") which is currently working. The proposal has also met the opposition of Great Britain and the United States, two of the biggest financial markets of the world.

European U-turn on the poor as economic crisis grips

As poor countries face the full impact of the economic crisis, European governments are falling short by nearly €40bn on their aid promises, a new report from CONCORD, the European confederation of development NGOs reveals. As Development Ministers prepare to meet in Brussels next week, the 2009 Aidwatch report, Lighten the load: in a time of crisis, European aid has never been more important, shows that European governments will not meet their 2010 aid target until 2012 unless serious action is taken now. Many governments are still inflating their aid levels by counting money that does not reach poor people.

Official figures show that in 2008, Europe allocated 0.40% of its gross national income (GNI) to aid. However, the report shows that most European donors have provided misleading aid figures. Out of almost €50bn provided as aid in 2008, close to €5bn went to debt cancellation, €2bn to hosting foreign students and close to €1bn to hosting and repatriating refugees. Real European aid amounted to only 0.34% of collective GNI. Missed targets and non-genuine aid will mean poor countries will have missed out on nearly €40bn by 2010 – enough to increase the income of 380 million Africans living in absolute poverty by one quarter.

CIDSE, the international alliance of Catholic development agencies, member of CONCORD and contributor to the report, urges the European Commission to set the example stepping up efforts in EU development aid. CIDSE observes a consistent gap between the Commission’s stated objectives and policies, on the one hand and the reality of the implementation and resources actually devoted on the other. It also reckons the Commission needs to step up efforts on equality commitments, poverty focus of EC aid and aid effectiveness. “Europe can and must get aid right, it is a matter of justice,” Bernd Nilles, Secretary General of CIDSE, said. “Making aid work means hope, while failing to do so implies privation and grim perspectives for our future.”

Bretton Woods II? We Need a Second UN Finance and Monetary Conference

Closing Remarks by Jens Martens to the Civil Society Forum Doha

1. Let me start with a quote from the Draft Outcome Document:
“The environment for Financing for Development has improved over the past 6 years, primarily due to a significant improvement in domestic savings of developing countries but also because of a sustained expansion in world trade, record private capital flows, higher remittances, a reduction in debt burdens especially in heavily-indebted poor countries and a reversal in ODA from earlier declines. The development impact of these flows is enhanced by a commitment to free market principles, including the rule of law, respect for private property, open trade and investment, competitive markets and efficient, effectively regulated financial systems. These principles are essential to economic growth and prosperity and have lifted millions out of poverty and have significantly raised the global standard of living.” (para 2bis)

This paragraph is not agreed and hopefully will never be agreed, but I am wondering: Do the delegates who drafted these sentences live in a parallel universe, when they praise the “efficient and effectively regulated financial systems” that have lifted millions out of poverty? At least additional 75 million people are forced to live in hunger and poverty this year due to the global food crisis. What would they think when they had to read these sentences?

2. The world faces an unprecedented crisis of the current financial and economic system. But the negotiations on the Doha outcome document seem to continue as if nothing has happened. We miss any sense of urgency in the negotiations. What we need now is creative thinking and collective multilateral action instead of following the business as usual and muddling through approaches of the past.

3. Two weeks ago, the leaders of the 20 most powerful countries of the world met in Washington as the G-20. After three and a half hours they adopted a declaration on “Financial Markets and the World Economy” – a preliminary “to-do-list” to solve the current financial crisis. Without doubt, some of the 47 announced measures might be useful and necessary. But the G-20 failed to really address the root causes of the crisis. Instead, they primarily intend to stabilize the current financial system – a system that has been characterized for the last 20 years as “casino capitalism”. But we don’t need better rules for the casino. The casino has to be closed down!

4. That the Washington summit took place at the level of the G-20 and not the G-7 or 8 reflects the changing realities of the world and is a step in the right direction. But it would be a grave mistake to stop there and to exclude 172 governments and the global civil society from the decision making process about the future financial and economic system.

5. About 20 years ago the G-7 took the lead in promoting the Washington Consensus and its neo-liberal ideology of deregulation and privatization – the same ideology that caused the current crisis. We don’t need a new Washington Consensus of the new G-20, which primary goal is to stabilize the present system, without taking into account the needs and demands of the people who are most affected by the crisis and the structural causes of this crisis.
(The G-20 leaders made “a commitment to free market principles, including the rule of law, respect for private property, open trade and investment, competitive markets, and efficient, effectively regulated financial systems.”)

6. What we need instead is a new global consensus, name it New York, Geneva or Nairobi Consensus, of the G-192 – the members of the United Nations. This is the reason, why we are here in Doha at a conference of the United Nations.

7. We are not naïve. We are aware of the weaknesses and limitations of the UN. Its decision making process is painfully slow and its results are based on the lowest common denominator. This was the reason, why many Civil Society Organisations declared in Monterrey 6 years ago that they are not part of the Monterrey Consensus. The Monterrey Conference was important, but its outcome didn’t respond adequately to the urgency of the economic and social situation in the world. Since then, the situation has become even worse.

8. However, the UN is the only universal forum that is inclusive, the forum where nearly all governments of the world have voice and vote, and where civil society organizations have participatory rights. Therefore it’s worth to fight for the strengthening of the UN.

9. This brings me back to the draft outcome document of the Doha conference. The existing draft is weak and the negotiations proceed again painfully slow. But the text contains at least a few elements – although not agreed yet - which could bring incremental progress, for instance
* the upgrading of the United Nations Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters to an intergovernmental body of the UN (para 8)
* the proposal for new ad hoc forums to explore sovereign debt work-out mechanisms and the possibility of crafting permanent debt mediation or arbitration procedures (para 46), and particularly
* the proposal to convene a major international conference, under the UN auspices, to review the international financial and monetary architecture and global economic governance structures ( one of 4 and my favourite versions of para. 58).

The adoption of this paragraph would in fact mean to bring not only the global discourse but also the decision making process on the reform of the economic and financial system back to the United Nations.

10. You may ask, why back to the UN? Was it ever there? Yes, 64 years ago, when the first United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference took place – better known as Bretton Woods Conference. The preparation of this conference took nearly 3 years and the conference was attended by delegates from 44 countries – by the way more than twice the membership of the G-20.

What we need now is a second United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference. Doha could mark the first step towards it.

G20 must put fight against poverty at the center

The G20 must avoid small-scale tinkering and instead take immediate, aggressive action to tackle poverty while laying out an ambitious vision for reforming the world economy at its Financial Crisis Summit. In a new report, If Not Now, When?, international relief and development agency Oxfam says that people living in poverty will be hit hard by the financial crisis unless urgent action is taken, adding that the poor should not have to pay for rich countries’ mistakes. The International Labor Organization estimates the number of workers living on less than one dollar a day may increase by 40 million and those living on less than two dollars a day could increase by more than 100 million.

According to Oxfam, there is a risk that recessions in rich countries will lead politicians to take the short-sighted approach of cutting aid. Given the tiny amounts of money involved compared to rich country economies, this would do little more than offer symbolic budget savings, but at huge human cost. Aid to all developing countries last year was $104bn. In comparison the US and EU mobilized nearly 30 times this – around $3trillion – in the last few months to help bail out their banks.

In "If Not Now, When?" Oxfam says that global leaders should immediately develop a new international regulatory institution with teeth, to prevent future financial crises and protect the interests of workers, consumers, and the environment. This includes taking on the secretive tax havens which undermine regulations and rob poor countries' of vital revenue that could be spent on schools and hospitals. It also calls for leaders to build a new representative global governance structure to tackle the economic, climate, food and energy crises. Reform must include far greater roles for developing countries as well as the poorest. Rich countries are going to have to concede some power on governing bodies like the G20 because they are desperate to get their hands on the huge financial reserves held by emerging markets.

Oxfam urges global leaders to see the opportunity to develop a new 21st century political and economic system that puts people and planet before profits. Oxfam calls on the G20 leaders to do three things:

1. Honor the OECD pledge not to cut development assistance, and increase aid instead by an additional $140bn necessary to meet the UN target of 0.7 percent of GNI immediately. In addition, urgently extend credit to emerging markets facing liquidity crises.
2. Rewrite global financial rules and regulations, including tackling tax havens and moving towards a more stable exchange rate system, in order to make the market work for all and not just for the few.
3. Build a new representative global governance system that can effectively tackle the economic, food, and energy crises.

EU position for Doha unsettled by G20 summit

According to observers in Brussels, the G20 summit on 15 November in Washington has thrown a wrench in the works to finalize a common European position for the UN conference on Financing for Development in Doha, Qatar at the end of the month. EU heads of state are meeting in Brussels today to discuss the EU’s positioning at the Washington summit on the future of the international financial architecture. This architecture has an essential impact on the financing for development issues on the agenda in Doha. But the development perspective is low on the radar screen for the G20 countries invited to the Washington summit. And a development perspective is nowhere to be found in the preparatory paper for today’s EU summit.

It is against this backdrop, the EU Council of Ministers is moving towards agreement on its position for Doha. On aid, the question of clear timetables for Member States to implement their commitments to provide 0.7% of GNI in ODA will be left to Development Ministers at the 11 November Council meeting, with certain countries using the current economic context as an excuse to renege on their promises. On innovative sources of finance, some Member States refuse to consider funds raised e.g. through the air ticket levy as additional to their 0.7% ODA commitment, preferring to use these as compensation for declining aid budgets.

The EU position places a strong emphasis on the responsibility of developing countries for mobilizing their own resources for development, giving less attention to ways in which the EU is undermining their ability to do so. Several Member States are opposed to civil society proposals on taxation, such as upgrading the UN Tax Committee to an intergovernmental body, which would give it a stronger mandate on issues like EU tax havens which allow multinational companies to pay lower taxes to developing countries. The EU is also resisting strengthening the FfD follow-up process within the UN, which would help to ensure implementation of agreements reached in Doha.

According to the CIDSE network of catholic aid agencies, the choice is now clear: The EU can seize the opportunity of revisions to the international financial architecture to change unfair global power structures and rules that inhibit developing countries’ ability to finance their own people’s development. Or, it can continue to proclaim grand rhetoric about the impact of the financial, food, and energy crises on the world’s poor, while disregarding the interests of the vulnerable in the scramble for profile at the table of the world’s most powerful. CIDSE will organize a side event at Doha launching a new policy paper on taxation and development.

MDG Summit in New York: Additional $150bn per year needed

Ahead of a crucial meeting in New York this week to assess the state of the world’s fight against global poverty, international agency Oxfam called on world leaders to redouble their efforts to fight the impact of rising food and fuel prices – and the attendant economic slowdown from eroding real gains in poverty reduction. The latest UN estimates suggest that the number of malnourished people worldwide has increased by 75m, to 925m, reversing progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving world hunger by 2015. Higher food prices indirectly affect progress towards many of the other Goals as well, not least because hunger negatively impacts on peoples’ ability to work, stay healthy and for children to go to school.

Alison Woodhead, Oxfam International’s spokeswoman in New York said: “In the face of these new and daunting challenges we need a dramatic shift in political will and ambition. This meeting must deliver concrete plans on how to keep these anti-poverty targets in our sights.” Around 90 Heads of State and Governments, along with the CEOs of the world’s biggest businesses and hundreds of anti-poverty organizations, are expected to gather in New York on September 25th for the High-Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals, which will be hosted by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Oxfam is calling on them to treat this as an emergency summit and step up their efforts in the fight against poverty.

According to Oxfam, Leaders must not just reissue empty promises, with their fingers crossed behind their backs. “This is a poverty emergency that requires exactly the same attention and response as the financial crisis grabbing the headlines”, Woodhead said. Remarkable progress is possible, even in the poorest countries. In Rwanda the number of children dying from malaria has been cut by two-thirds in the last two years alone. A boy born in Tanzania today is 25% less likely to die by his first birthday than his sister born just four years ago. However on current trends, Oxfam warns that the MDGs will not be achieved. An additional $150bn per year is needed by 2010 to meet all the goals, less than double the amount spent ($85bn) to bail out a single insurance group, AIG.

This week, Oxfam and other international agencies launch a major new campaigning action called ‘in my name’, calling on citizens to hold their leaders accountable for promises made in the year 2000. The initiative brings together dignitaries such as Queen Rania of Jordan, Mary Robinson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and celebrities from all continents including Rahul Bose, will.i.am, Angelique Kidjo, Wyclef Jean, Annie Lennox and Sergio Mendes.

NGO recommendations ahead of Doha

On August 30, civil society organisations monitoring the review process of the
Financing for Development (FfD) published a document, Key Recommendations for the Doha Draft Outcome Document which calls for “a package of new, concrete, monitorable measures, coupled with a strong and explicit political commitment to implement them”. The FfD conference is scheduled to take place on 29 November-2 December 2008 in Doha. The recommendations, which have 60 signatories including Eurostep, Action Aid and Oxfam International, include binding timetables to reach the UN target of 0.7% of GNI to ODA by 2015 at the latest, making use of the proceeds from emissions trading for international measures to combat global warming, expanded debt cancellation and the removal of aid conditionalities.

The document highlights that “it has now become clear that agriculture, food security and food sovereignty need to be put back on to the development agenda”. It also stresses the need to address the challenge of financing climate adaptation and mitigation, to allow “democratic and equitable participation of all countries in global and national-level policy-making” and to recognise gender concerns and women’s participation as integral to effective policy-making.

Last-ditch diplomacy: Agenda for Action still needs action, says Oxfam

According to Oxfam International, last-minute negotiations pushed by developing country and European ministers at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness have secured commitments to improve international aid. The world will now be watching to ensure all donors implement the Accra Agenda for Action and go further to make aid more responsive to the priorities of developing countries. “The stage is set for important improvements in the way aid is delivered. But the Accra Agenda needs to be backed by urgent action if it is to live up to its name. It won’t have any impact on the lives of people living in poverty unless its promise is put into practice,” said Oxfam International head of delegation Robert Fox. “This agreement must be a floor, not a ceiling. We encourage all donors to go further in accelerating the pace of reform.”

A compromise agreement was reached among official negotiators on Wednesday, without any time-bound targets. But developing country and European ministers arriving in the Ghanaian capital argued for specific commitments and dates for action. Developing countries and non-governmental organisations have pointed to the urgent need to reform aid to prevent waste and give developing countries more control.

“There is much more that can and must be done to improve quality, but equally important we need to boost the quantity of aid if we are going to end poverty and improve access to health care, education and clean water,” said Robert Fox. “At the UN meetings later this month on the Millennium Development Goals and the November meetings on development finance, donor countries have to get serious about scaling up aid to meet the enormity of the challenge. With more and better aid, we can make a real difference.”

Civil society statement in Accra warns urgency for action on aid

Over 600 representatives from 325 civil society organisations and 88 countries have met in Accra to debate what actions must be taken to reform aid, and finalize their recommendations to the Third High Level Forum (HLF3) on Aid Effectiveness starting today. CSOs have engaged energetically with the preparatory processes for Accra over the last year. Although they have welcomed these opportunities, they are very disappointed that the Accra Agenda for Action as it stands promises little change. Since the Paris Declaration of 2005, donors in particular have made very slow progress in making aid more effective. Too much aid remains driven by donors' priorities and interests rather than by the national priorities defined by developing countries.

CSOs call on officials present in Accra to respond with urgency. What is needed in Accra are clear time-bound commitments to deliver real results for people on the ground, towards the eradication of poverty, inequality and social exclusion. This is a political not a technical challenge, and should be treated as such. The Accra HLF must also deliver real measurable and time-bound commitments to address some of the problems which are not adequately dealt with in the Paris Declaration. Donors must take responsibility for improvements which only they can deliver (e.g. untying aid and improving medium-term predictability of aid) and all governments must increase the democratic accountability and transparency of their use of aid resources, policies and activities.

If the Accra High Level Forum is to be seen as a credible response to the serious challenges of making aid more effective, the Accra Agenda for Action must at a minimum:

* Commit to broadening the definition of ownership so that citizens, civil society organisations and elected officials are central to the aid process at all levels.
* Set time-bound and monitorable targets to:
- Stop short-term aid and commit to ensuring that 80% of aid is committed for at least 3-5 years by 2010.
- Reduce the burden of conditionality by 2010 so that aid agreements are based on mutually agreed objectives.
* Set a more ambitious target to make all technical assistance demand-led by 2010.
* Commit to end tied aid, including food aid and technical assistance, by 2010.
* Commit donors and recipients to make the aid system more accountable by developing and implementing new standards for transparency by 2009 which ensure that accurate, timely, accessible and comparable information about aid is proactively communicated to the public.
* Commit to improve the monitoring of aid effectiveness by adapting existing Paris indicators and by integrating new indicators from the Accra Agenda for Action by 2009; by supporting independent and citizen-led monitoring and evaluation systems and by agreeing an inclusive evaluation process to assess the impact of Paris on poverty reduction, gender equality, human rights and environmental sustainability.

Please find the full statement at www.betteraid.org.

Aid Effectiveness: US and Japan are blocking progress, says Oxfam

Ahead of an international conference this week to reform aid, a battle is emerging over the future direction of aid and development. The High Level Forum (HLF) on Aid Effectiveness – in Accra, Ghana, from 2 to 4 September – is part of a process that began three years ago in Paris to make aid more effective and give developing countries more control. Representatives of donors and recipient governments are meeting today to reach consensus on a communiqué (the Accra Agenda for Action). But differences risk derailing much-needed aid reform.

“Urgent action is needed at Accra but progress in raising the bar is being blocked. While some countries are willing to move ahead in setting more aggressive targets, others, including the US and Japan, are dragging their feet,” said Oxfam International head of delegation Robert Fox. “Many donors want changes that will hand a lot more power, a lot more quickly, to effective developing country governments. The US and Japanese governments don’t. This isn’t just a food-fight between bureaucrats. Until you solve the political question of who should shape development, you cannot solve the problems of poverty and inequality.”

An OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) survey on progress in reforming aid, to be released this week, shows that where recipient governments have improved their management of aid, donors have still not kept their commitments to give them more control and improve aid efficiency. Rich countries’ insistence on using separate procedures to manage aid wastes both time and money, said Oxfam. In Mozambique, for instance, donors were spending a staggering $350m a year on 3,500 technical consultants, more than four times the annual salaries of 100,000 Mozambican public-sector workers. “One of the best ways to support developing countries that are working hard to reduce poverty is to channel funds directly to their governments – yet right now, a tiny proportion of global aid is delivered in this way. Recent reviews of aid to governments in Rwanda, India and Zambia show that it is helping get many more children into school and assuring many more people get proper healthcare when they are sick. Governments need direct aid to pay for the salaries and training of millions more teachers and health workers,” said Robert Fox.

Accra: Decent Work essential to effective development aid

Trade unions will press the case for Decent Work as a primary benchmark in development aid at the international conference on aid effectiveness, being held in Accra, Ghana from 2–4 September. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which is fielding a delegation of international and Ghanaian trade union representatives at the forum, is working with other civil society organizations to ensure that democracy, the creation of decent jobs, gender equality and a range of other key concerns are fully integrated into future aid strategies. The unions are also strongly backing moves to stop donor countries unilaterally imposing onerous conditions into aid packages, especially as these “conditionalities” often contradict democratic decisions taken by national governments and undermine democratic ownership and overall progress on development.

The Ghana Forum needs to focus on how international aid can support and promote decent work, which will not only directly benefit workers and their local communities, but help ensure that the assistance provided will have real impact in tackling poverty and generate lasting economic development. The union delegation in Accra will press for this and for real progress on ensuring the economic empowerment of women through development aid as well as action to create employment for young people.

“Development aid has an important contribution to make in tackling the massive challenges confronting the world community. Making sure that aid is truly effective is a key part of the overall transformation in global economic relations, which the world so badly needs. Trade unions have a unique and pivotal contribution to make in ensuring aid effectiveness and accountability alongside their broader role as major actors in civil society as guarantors of democracy, equality and sustainable development,” said Guy Ryder of ITUC. - Following a preparatory meeting in Accra on 30 August, the trade union delegation will take place in a two-day gathering of civil society organizations to finalise common positions to put to governments at the High Level Forum. The ITUC is a member of the International Steering Group of civil society organizations.

Push for Decent Work in development and poverty eradication

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is using a new United Nations Development Cooperation Forum (DCF), meeting in New York this week, to push for decent work in development and poverty strategies. An ITUC Statement to the first Biennial Development Cooperation Forum of the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) sets out a series of steps which need to be taken to make aid and poverty eradication effective. "At the policy level, the UN has made great strides in mainstreaming decent work into its development agenda," said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. "The recent adoption by the International Labour Conference of the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation gives fresh impetus to putting the policy to work in reality".

In keeping with the new ILO Declaration, the ITUC Statement calls for the decent work agenda to be fully incorporated into National Development Strategies (NDSs), based on the four strategic objectives of promoting employment, social protection, social dialogue and rights at work. Special emphasis is placed on gender equality and non-discrimination as drivers of economic and social development. The ITUC further calls on multilateral institutions as well as bilateral and multilateral development actors to harmonise their policies with sustainable development objectives, including decent work objectives, and to ensure that policies support rather than undermine these objectives. The Statement points out that aid programmes should fully respect the principles of national policy space, democratic ownership, removal of tied aid and ending regressive economic policy conditionality.

The ITUC's push for decent work in development will gain further momentum at two important international events later this year, the September meeting in Accra on aid effectiveness, and the conference on financing for development in Doha in November.

Concerning the Development Cooperation Forum itself, the ITUC believes that this new ECOSOC body should become the key global forum for discussing development cooperation, and that the ILO in particular should have a key role in it to ensure that decent work is fully integrated. The DCF should set the agenda on development and aid effectiveness, and operate as a multi-stakeholder policy Forum involving bilateral and multilateral donors and institutions, UN specialized agencies, and civil society organisations including trade unions. It should complement the existing policy dialogues of other relevant for a such as OECD-DAC and the Financing for Development (FfD) process, with development cooperation and development effectiveness as its core mandate, and with a remit to resolve issues of policy coherence with respect to development cooperation.