16th November, 2006

DAVID ADAMS

Australia is the least generous of all the eight G20 donor countries when it comes to overseas aid, according to a report released this week.

Written by Simon Feeny and Matthew Clarke for the Make Poverty History campaign, the report Are the G-20 Helping to Make Poverty History? examines each of the G20 nation’s performance with regard to a range of foreign aid indicators.

PLACE FOR A SUMMIT: Melbourne where this weekend's G20 summit is taking place. PICTURE: Sack (iStockphoto.com)   “Time is running out and governments need to act now to make poverty history.” - Make Poverty History report 'Are the G-20 Helping to Make Poverty History?'

These included the amount of aid they provide relative to the size of their economies, being committed to increasing the amount of official development assistance to 0.7 per cent of gross national income and providing large shares of their aid to the least developed countries.

The report, which was released ahead of this weekend’s annual meeting of the G20 being held in Melbourne, shows that the United Kingdom and France perform well on a number of these indicator while Canada, Germany, Italy and the United States are ranked as "fair" and both Japan and Australia as "poor".

Among the reasons cited for the ranking was that Australia’s ratio of official development assistance to gross national product has fallen as low as .25 per cent and there is no timetabled commitment to lift it to the global benchmark figure of 0.7 per cent while Japan’s ratio of aid to income has remained stable at 0.28 per cent since 2000. Both figures are well below the OECD average of 0.47 per cent.

The authors say Australia and Japan need to address these issues “in order to more effectively assist with the achievement of the MDGs (the UN’s Millennium Development Goals)” and adds that additional debt relief from these and other countries will also assist in reducing global poverty.

The report also ranks developing countries within the G20 based on their efforts to tackle the issue of poverty. While Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and China are all rated “good”, Brazil and Indonesia are rated “fair” and Argentina, India and South Africa are ranked as “poor”.

“(T)here is evidence that the governments of Argentina, India and South Africa need to prioritise more resources for development and scale up their fights against corruption,” the report's authors conclude.

“Time is running out and governments need to act now to make poverty history.”

Make Poverty History co-chair Tim Costello says the G20 summit represents an historic opportunity for world leaders to combat poverty through better aid and debt relief. He says it would be a “wasted opportunity” if domestic issues such as petrol prices dominated it.

“As host, Australia can take a leading position by replacing debt for investment projects with Indonesia - which owes Australia $1.1 billion - and the Philippines - which owes $221 million,” he says.

“Thousands of lives would be saved and hundreds of thousands would be educated.”

According to the report, if Australia met its commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by improving basic education, health and sanitation in neighbouring South East Asian nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Laos, it could result in as many as many as 75,000 fewer child deaths, 2,300 fewer maternal deaths, at least 16,000 less AIDS deaths and 17,000 less deaths from tuberculosis every year.

The document's release this week follows the release of the recent annual Make Poverty History report which found that the Australian Government had performed poorly when looking at its contribution to reducing global poverty, receiving a thumbs up for just two of 15 indicators. That report showed that the Government had foundered in the areas of increasing the total volume of aid, in assisting least developed countries, in improving environmental sustainability and in monitoring progress against the Millennium Development Goals - the global blueprint to halve poverty by 2015.

Costello, who is also the chief executive of World Vision Australia, says the G20 meeting is Australia’s chance to prove “we are serious about tackling poverty”.

Meanwhile Make Poverty History co-chair Andrew Hewett says the report also shows that some developing countries need to prioritise more resources and scale up their battle against poverty. He cites the fact that seven of the 11 G-20 developing countries have reduced the amount of expenditure they give to education as an example of the need for the change.

“Developed and developing countries need to work together to better ensure the benefits of aid and economic growth are equitably shared and environmentally sustainable,” says Hewett, who is the executive director of Oxfam Australia.

“All G20 countries need to step up their fight against poverty.”

• The Make Poverty History Concert - which will be held tomorrow at Melbourne’s Sydney Myer Music Bowl - has been sold out. But those who missed out on tickets can see the concert - which features Eskimo Joe, Sarah Blasko, the John Butler Trio and Paul Kelly - at live sites. These include Waterfront City in Melbourne’s Docklands, the Arena in Geelong and the Kangaroo Flat Community Centre in Bendigo. There are also live sites at Suncorp Piazza in Brisbane’s Southbank and the Leederville Hotel in Perth.

For more information on what’s happening around the G20 meeting, visit www.makepovertyhistory.com.au.