Week 10

Politics of international aid

Development aid and development funding: International philanthropy or political gain?

What is development?

What are the characteristics of a “developed country”?

What are the characteristics of a “developing country”?

- Even responses to these questions are steeped in politics and ideology

What is development??

200 Countries, 200 Years, in 4 Minutes – a history of development?

Hans Rosling - Gapminder.org

Development approaches, indicators, measures

• Economic development

• Social or human development

• 6 billion people on the planet in 2000,

• 1 billion of those have 80% of the income, 5 billion have 20%

• Of those 5 billion, 3 billion live on less than $2 per day

• Of those 3 billion 1.2 billion live on less than $1 per day. And half of those are starving – they cannot feed themselves or their children.

(and 1 trillion dollars in development aid in the last 50 years to get these outcomes)

Development progress? - numbers from Bill Wolfensohn, former head of World Bank

• In 1500 and 1815, China and India had 50% of global GDP. After world war 2 they had 1.2% In 2050, they will again have reached 50% of global GDP

• In 2050 (with 9 billion people) 80% of world income will no longer be with US, Europe and Japan – they will only have 35% of the world’s total wealth.

• In 2050 50% of income will be in China and India, 65% in Asia. Average wages will be $2-3000 per capita in Africa, $30-40000 per capita in China and India, and $80-90000 in Europe and US.

• By 2050 there will be 9 billion people in the world and 2/9ths of these will be living in extreme poverty. (mostly in Africa)

“We cant have 2/9ths of the world population in this situation” -- Bill Wolfensohn

WHY? (or WHY NOT?)

“People will use the inadequacies of income to stimulate problems . . . [this information] will enable those of malevolent intent to stir up trouble” Bill Wolfensohn

Is development aid a security issue? Political imperative? human right?

Actionaid reference “Action on Rights”,

People’s movement for HRE “The Human Right to Development”

• Who gives what to whom, and why?- Australia’s position as

• Who decides what to prioritise in the provision of aid?

Political questions for development aid

What should be a greater aid priority?

• Maternal healthcare or AIDS prevention? • Infant mortality or universal primary education for

girls? • Reduce malnutrition or achieve equal representation

of women in decision making?• Education infrastructure (building new schools) or

providing immunisation against preventable diseases?• Food aid or infrastructure linking rural area to urban

centre?

Places most dependent on development aid

(US$ million)

• 1. Solomon Islands 66.5

• 2. East Timor 52.9

• 3. Burundi 45.6

• 4. Sao Tome 45.2

• 5. Eritrea 36.6

• 6. Sierra Leone 28.8

• 7. Congo Republic 28.5

• 8. Malawi 27.8

• 9. Palestinian Territories 27.4

• 10. Rwanda 26.7

Biggest givers of international aid

Amount (US$ mil.) Proportion of gross national income (%)

• 1. United States 21,753 0.16

• 2. Germany 12,267 0.37

• 3. France 9,940 0.39

• 4. Britain 9,921 0.36

• 5. Japan 7,691 0.17

• 6. Netherlands 6,215 0.81

• 7. Spain 5,744 0.41

• 8. Sweden 4,334 0.93

• 9. Italy 3,929 0.19

• 10. Canada 3,922 0.28

Millennium development goals8 goals, 21 quantifiable targets, 60

indicators•Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger•Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education•Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women•Goal 4: Reduce child mortality•Goal 5: Improve maternal health•Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases•Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability•Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development •http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml