Overseas aid belongs abroad

Indeed, the biggest problem with the whole “security approach” to aid is that it takes the spotlight off poverty alleviation. While the Australian Government is busy halting terrorists and the spread of terrorism, the world”s poorest people are losing out. The OECD highlighted this problem in a DAC peer review released in 2005.

Australia faces a major challenge and opportunity in taking forward its “whole-of-government approach” in a way which is poverty focused, developmentally sustainable and owned by partner countries.

The report went on to question how Australia’s focus on governance contributed to poverty alleviation.

Australia is currently one of the OECD’s least generous aid deliverers - giving just 0.25 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), compared to OECD average of 0.47%. We spend more money on our pets than we do on the world’s most needy people.

Internationally, aid donors are heeding the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and increasing their aid to 0.7 per cent of GNI by 2015. John Howard has said that we will increase our aid program to $4 billion by 2010, or 0.38 per cent of GNI, just over half what the international community says is required to reach the MDG. Australia is a signatory to the MDG but currently has no strategy to comply with its clearly stated goals. The international community is leaving us behind.

Quite simply, we need to improve the quality of our aid program. Taking away the “national interest” lens, untying our aid program from commercial and security interests, focusing on building strong partnerships with aid recipients and a clear focus on alleviating poverty are vital steps.

As a wealthy nation, Australia has a responsibility to join the international effort to make poverty history. As Nelson Mandela said at last year’s G8 meeting in Edinburgh: “This is not about charity, it is an issue of justice.”