G20 nations urged to tackle poverty by Make Poverty History, Oxfam, World Vision 4:15am 16th Nov, 2006   November 17, 2006    Australia needs to double its foreign aid to keep pace with the generosity of other developed countries, World Vision CEO Tim Costello says.    Finance ministers and central bankers from 19 countries and the European Union are meeting in Melbourne for the G20 summit.    The Make Poverty History co-chairman Mr Costello said G20 should put ending world poverty at the top of the agenda.    Mr Costello condemned the Australian government for its miserliness with foreign aid.    Australia came 19th out of 22 OECD countries in terms of aid, he said, despite having upped its generosity by 81 per cent to $3 billion dollars.    Current levels of aid were only 0.28 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), or 28 cents for every $100 of GNI, he said, compared to 0.5 per cent in Britain and other European countries. "We"re languishing at the bottom of the table," Mr Costello said.    The World Vision chief executive also lashed out at the culture of granting massive subsidies to farmers in Europe, Japan and the United States.    Farmers in these countries earn between 22 to 50 per cent of their income direct from the taxpayer, he said. These subsidies were the anathema of free trade, he said, and crippling the world"s poorest farmers.    "The hypocrisy of Europe, of Japan and America is quite stunning, particularly America which preaches free trade," he said.    "That massive subsidisation of farmers means African and Asian farmers can"t sell their goods freely into those markets."    Unlike its older sibling the G8, the G-20 is a far more representative body for addressing global economic challenges. It includes key managers of the international economy from both developed and developing countries - such as India, Brazil and China - and represents about 85 percent of the global economy and 60 per cent of its population.    We are calling on the G-20 to outline the next steps to tackle extreme poverty with plans for debt relief and more and better aid.    The key to ending deadly poverty in our world is to give the poor a voice in decisions governing the global market place, rather than distancing them from it.    I have just returned from India, which is booming with economic growth of 8 percent. Yet there still exists a glass floor that means this wealth is not helping the very poor.    I spoke to nine-year-old Kurshid who worked 60 hours a week in the gem cutting industry for the pittance of $US1 a week. He is one of 20 million child labourers in India today.    This is one reason why the G-20 should develop global policies that benefit the poorest of the poor.    Oxfam Australia executive director Andrew Hewett says it is essential G20 put poverty firmly on its agenda if it was to raise people out of extreme disadvantage.    More than 60,000 children will die as a result of poverty over the course of the G20 Meeting in Melbourne this week.    This is the chilling message of aid agency Oxfam International, which is urging the economic block to cancel more debt and grant more aid to save millions of lives worldwide from the mire of poverty, death and disease.    In a report titled Our Generation"s Choice, Oxfam criticises Australia as this year"s chair, for failing to make poverty reduction a key focus of the meeting.    It argues that the 20 global finance heads at the meeting must act immediately to meet critical poverty reduction goals set by the United Nations.    The UN Millennium Development Goals aim to halve extreme poverty by 2015, alongside a host of targets for improving global education access, sanitation, gender equality and child mortality.    The report also urges richer countries to commit to spending at least 0.7 per cent of gross national income on aid funding by 2015.    Its underlying argument is that reducing poverty makes good economic sense. For example, for every $1 invested in improving water quality and sanitation, another $3 to $4 is saved on health care. Mr Hewett said halving global poverty was affordable "so let"s stop pretending it"s not".    November 16, 2006    South African Archbishop feels Africa"s pain, close up and personal, by Sarah Smiles.    The Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, is no stranger to the face of poverty. As the spiritual leader of millions of Africans, he sees it every day in his pews.    He is in Australia to lobby world leaders at the G20 economic summit to ensure more global citizens enjoy the quality and "dignity" of life afforded in the West.    "In a world where there is so much advancement in knowledge and technology, it is shameful and immoral- in fact, it"s a sin - that millions of people still go hungry every day," he said in Canberra yesterday.    Debt relief, increasing aid flows and reducing punitive trade barriers that drive down the price of crops for Africans are at the top of his agenda.    "Aid goes so far, and no further, whereas trade has got the potential of creating a difference," he said, quoting a statistic pointing out that an increase in trade by 1 per cent in Africa would significantly override the amount of aid that it receives.    The archbishop understands that it is easy for people in the West to become complacent about poverty and disease racking the developing world. The horrors of HIV-AIDS and grinding hunger often seem too far away.    Ordained in 1974, the archbishop spent three years in the 60s as a political prisoner on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was interned, for protesting against apartheid.    He recognises corruption as a problem stifling growth in Africa and has set up an independent body, African Monitor, to survey not only international commitments to aid, but how it is used by African governments.    November 15, 2006    Call for debt relief, financier reform, by Andra Jackson.    Water was being priced out of the reach of poor consumers and farmers in Asia, Africa and Latin America because of privatisation, an international campaigner against poverty said yesterday.    Lidy Nacpil, international co-ordinator of Jubilee South, said essential services such as water had been sold off in developing countries to private companies.    Speaking from Manila, she said consumers in one of that city"s districts were paying 32 pesos (80 Australian cents) per cubic metre of water.    Ms Nacpil said the problem affected Africa, Ghana, South Africa, Bolivia, Argentina and parts of India, and was caused by global financial institutions and wealthier countries pushing inappropriate policies onto debt-ridden countries.    She said the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were major financiers of such privatisation.    Ms Nacpil will call for debt cancellation for poorer countries and reform of international financial institutions on behalf of Jubilee South at a Make Poverty History forum at Melbourne Town Hall tomorrow.    The international forum will take place two days before this weekend"s annual G20 meeting, which brings together finance ministers and central bank governors from the world"s largest economies.    Jubilee South was set up in 1999 on the initiative of Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, Argentina, Nicaragua and the Philippines. It sees the world as divided into debt-ridden "southern countries", most of which are in the southern hemisphere, and the wealthier countries of the northern hemisphere, which are the major creditors.    "The World Bank and the IMF have a major role to play in these financial flows, especially the lending flows, both as creditors themselves as well as for the IMF, an evaluator of risks and credit ratings," Ms Nacpil said.    What should the G-20 do? (Make Poverty History)    1) Ensure aid is sufficient and effective: Developed nation members should join other wealthy nations committing to invest 0.7% of national income in overseas aid by 2015. All member nations must support the national plans of developing countries for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the globally agreed plan to halve world poverty by 2015.    2) Take the next step on debt cancellation: Commit to the principle of debt relief for countries whose debts are crippling their chances of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.    3) Ensure fairer trade rules: Seek to restart the World Trade Organisation Doha Round negotiations. Ensure the resulting trade agreement genuinely meets the needs of developing countries for sustainable human development and equitable economic growth.    4) Advocate for reform of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund: Call for equitable representation at board and leadership levels for developing countries and make decision-making more transparent.    5) Ensure discussions about energy use also consider climate change: Commit to urgent action to cut greenhouse pollution and release a statement on the global economic impact of climate change, particularly on the poorest countries. Visit the related web page
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