1970 - Governments of the World commit to providing a minimum of 0.7% of their GNP to address the needs of the poorest amongst us by 1975.
2000 - Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, at the UN Millennium Summit, commits Ireland to providing 0.7% of our GNP to Overseas Aid by 2oo7
2003 - Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, addressed the UN General Assembly and reaffirmed our commitment in front of the world leaders.
2005 - Ireland pushes back the date of achieving the target to 2012.
July 2008 - Ireland "remains on course" to meet 0.7% commitment by 2012 - but Aid budget cut by €45 Million
September 2008 - Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, returns to New York renews our commitment at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit.
October 2008 - Additional €15 Million taken from Aid budget, but we were are "still on course"
February 2009 - €95 Million taken from the Aid budget - and we start to roll back on our commitment. We do not renew our commitment, but we will "continue to be one of the most generous donors"
April 2009 - An additional €100 Million taken from the Aid budget - and the fall back from our commitment continues, as the "decision will make it more difficult to achieve the 2012 target"
In the last year, the Aid budget has been cut by €240M.
Much of the reporting has suggested that the cuts have been in line with reductions in our own GNP.
This is simply untrue.
This year our economy is expected to shrink by 8%, but we have reduced our commitment to those most margainalised in this world by 22%.
In 2009, we will commit 0.48% of our GNP to the world's poorest - just above the amount Mr Cowen committed that we would achieve by 2002.
Do we have a GNP anymore?
ReplyDeleteCuts in aid mean people die that could have been saved through funding healthcare interventions to cure people dying with malaria, improving water and sanitation so that children aren't dying from bad water, and providing nutritional supplements to malnourished children, to name a few - it's as simple as that. Politicians need to stop giving lip service to empty promises and show some moral and resposnible leadership in a time when it is critical not to let the worlds most vulnerable people down. Cuts in social welfare won't lead to people dying in the streets here. Cuts in development aid will most certainly lead to deaths of our neighbours that could have been saved.
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