In an article first published in The Age newspaper, World Vision chief executive Tim Costello says Australia must find the political will to eradicate global poverty…
It was in a Manila slum almost two decades ago that I experienced one of the most profound, heart-rending illustrations of how poverty kills.
“We still live in world where a child dies every three seconds because of poverty – some 30,000 children a day. While it used to be 55,000 children dying each day, some 40 years ago, it is still a horrifying toll.”
I sat in a tiny, dirt floor shack – which served as a family home – in front of a mother who told me how a few weeks ago one of her three children had fallen seriously ill.
The antibiotics her son required cost 15 pesos – then, just 38 cents Australian. Yet she was poor and she was faced with a dreadful choice – if she bought the medication her other children would have to go without any substantial food for three weeks. She made the choice. She let her son die.
Back then I was a father of three young children – this woman’s story rocked me to my very core. It underscored to me why poverty is one of the great moral evils of our time. Extreme poverty is one of the great moral challenges confronting us all.
It is why it gives me great pleasure to declare that today we are winning the war on poverty.
In the last two decades number of people living on less than $US1 a day has fallen by 135 million since 1990. Since the year 2000 an extra 34 million more children have been able to go to primary school for the first time. Deaths from diseases such as measles have been halved.
Further, debt relief has allowed 29 of the world’s poorest countries to more than double their spending on health, education and other initiatives to reduce poverty.
It has enabled Uganda to boost access to health services from 49 per cent of its population to 80 per cent . Tanzania used its debt relief to build 31,000 new classrooms and 1,000 new schools, while Zambia provided free healthcare to people living in rural areas.
Yet while we are winning the war on poverty – we have not won.
There are still big issues that are unresolved. Promises of debt forgiveness – despite already totalling billions of dollars – are still only half fulfilled, The AIDS epidemic has not yet been turned around and we still have massive agricultural subsidies preventing a level playing field for trade.
It is also true that climate change is only beginning to be understood as a major threat to development and poverty reduction and is likely to increase the number and scale of humanitarian crises.
And we still live in world where a child dies every three seconds because of poverty – some 30,000 children a day. While it used to be 55,000 children dying each day, some 40 years ago, it is still a horrifying toll.
Back in the year 2000 world leaders came together at the United Nation’s to commit themselves to the Millennium Development Goals – 8 goals aimed at halving the number of people living on less than $US1 a day by 2015. The goals would see the achievement of universal primary education, promote gender equality and empowerment, reduce child deaths, improve maternal health and combat AIDS and other diseases.
Yet as close as we are to our goal and despite the universal pledge by nations to combat poverty – the chances of achieving the Millennium Development Goals are now under threat. They are on the precipice.
According to the United Nation’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon the failure of rich countries to deliver on the promises of increasing overseas aid is threatening to strangle the process.
And here the Australian Government could make a significant impact by acting on its promise to boost aid to 0.7 per cent of GNI – a promise that has been awaiting fulfilment since 1970. The Australian government likes to pride itself on its generosity however in recent years our country has rarely been a leader in overseas aid. When compared to other developed nations, we rank a lowly equal 15th out of the world’s 22 rich nations.
Australians do care about overseas aid. Individually we are among the most generous givers to overseas aid in the world, second only to the Irish. And research conducted for World Vision by Quantum Research shows people want our government to do more. Some 62 per cent said Australia should be a world leader in reducing global poverty with 71 per cent believing we should be in the top 10 of donor nations. And 74 per cent said they thought Australia should meet its international commitment of 0.7 per cent of GNI for aid.
The Make Poverty History movement in Australia is a growing voice for change. It has 50,000 registered supporters and some 800,000 white bands – the global symbol of the fight against poverty – have been distributed in Australia. Last year its website received almost 700,000 visits.
I believe political parties can no longer ignore the movement for change – the movement to Make Poverty History.
I believe it is why Opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, last month pledged to boost overseas aid spending to 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015. If delivered, the extra aid could allow Australia to fund programs to achieve all of the following: reduce child deaths by 140,000 each year, cut maternal deaths by 4,200, lead to at least 29,000 fewer deaths from AIDS and 31,000 fewer deaths from TB each year. It could also provide access to safe drinking water to almost 37 million people and access to basic education for over 200,000 children.
We can Make Poverty History. We just need the political will to make it so.
This article was first published in The Age newspaper, Melbourne.
