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INTERVIEW - EU aid chief sees "serious threats" to aid for poor
Written by: Olesya Dmitracova
A woman escorts her children home from school in Zimbabwe's capital Harare, January 27, 2009. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
LONDON (AlertNet) - Poorer countries risk receiving less development aid next year from the European Union, their biggest donor by far, because of the recession and climate change, the bloc's aid chief said on Friday. Firstly, the economic slowdown is slashing EU countries' gross national incomes and so reducing the flow of official development aid, which is set as a percentage of those revenues, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Karel De Gucht told AlertNet. Secondly, as EU leaders agree that they have to help developing countries curb carbon emissions and adapt to changes such as floods and heatwaves, "there could be a tendency to 'save' some development money so that it becomes easier to finance climate change (aid)", he said. "And thirdly, as a result of the economic downturn and pressure problems in every member state, by the way, there could also be a tendency whereby member states make efforts to diminish development aid contributions," De Gucht added. "We should consider these to be three serious threats to official development aid," he said by telephone from Brussels. The European Union, i.e. both EU countries and the European Commission, provides around 60 percent of development aid worldwide. The bulk of the EU assistance is given by 15 major donor-countries and is part of global official development aid. Last year, these 15 EU states donated $70.17 billion in official development aid, according to preliminary figures due to be finalised later this year. The European Commission's contributions are fixed between 2008 and 2013 and average out at $6.77 billion per year. LITTLE PROGRESS ON DEVELOPMENT GOALS A cut in development funding would slacken the already slow progress towards achieving the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals on poverty, hunger, education, equality, disease and infant mortality by the 2015 deadline. "We are not going to reach the Millennium Development Goals but I think we should aspire to do more anyway," De Gucht said. He added: "We have made considerable progress with respect to primary education and sanitation, for example, but for child and maternal mortality and also for food security -- and especially after the food crisis last year -- we are completely out of track." The development funds that are available should also be spent more effectively, with better coordination between countries, De Gucht said. In Tanzania, for example, there were 600 international public health projects last year, he said. "This is crazy," he added. The European Commission is preparing a major report on aid effectiveness, De Gucht added. "We have been figuring out that if aid were really more effective, we (the European Union) could save up to 7 billion euros ($10 billion) on a yearly basis. Practically, this means that we would be able to spend 7 billion euros more."
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