Financing 21st Century Development: Bill Gates Report to G20 leaders
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
The Vital Role of Development Assistance
Especially in hard times, some people will say rich countries should cut their ODA. They should not. Not only because they have made promises, but also because important pieces of the development agenda won’t be addressed without assistance. ODA spurs innovation by funding pilot projects that poor countries would not undertake themselves. It also pays for global public goods like scientific research. Finally, people in very poor countries will continue to depend on assistance for their survival for the foreseeable future.
One stark way of looking at it is to consider the death toll from AIDS. It costs approximately $450 per year to treat a person for AIDS. A donation of $450 to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, for example, keeps somebody alive for a year and helps prevent the disease from spreading. Conversely, every $450 that isn’t forthcoming represents a person the world is willing to let die from a treatable disease. Sometimes, it’s a simple question of money.
It is common to say that, given the economic crisis, countries cannot be expected to budget for increases in ODA. As the founder of a company that has weathered several recessions, I understand the need for belt tightening in downturns. But the fact is aid accounts for about 1 percent of public spending in most donor countries. That amount of money isn’t causing the world’s fiscal problems, and cutting back on ODA isn’t going to solve them. Aid is a small investment that generates a huge return. Those are precisely the investments we should spare when it’s time to make cuts.
Many donor nations have established targets for ODA. Most notably, 15 European countries pledged to spend 0.7 percent of their GNI on development assistance by 2015. I urge wealthy countries that have not pledged to the 0.7 percent threshold to adopt this standard and start budgeting for small increases to get there.
The United Kingdom has charted a course to reach its 0.7 percent pledge. Australia has also increased its aid significantly during the crisis, and a number of northern European donors have reached—and some have surpassed—0.7 percent. Clearly, it is possible for countries to meet their commitments with the right leadership. The deadline for these pledges is 2015, so there is still time. I urge donor countries to develop plans to hit their targets.
Related:
