Developed countries Developing countries
  • More and better targeted aid
  • More just trading system
  • Quicker and deeper debt relief
  • More budget spending on health
  • Education, transport, access to clean water
  • Improved governance












Quantity of aid

The world has never before seen so much prosperity and the donor communities have never been richer.  Wealth per person has more than doubled between 1961 and the year 2000.  However, the aid given per person is actually less than it was four decades ago. Only 0.25 percent of donors' Gross National Product (GNP) instead of the pledged 0.7 percent has been achieved. Caritas wants donor countries to meet their commitments.

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Quality of aid
Too much bilateral aid has been driven by strategic geo-political objectives. Moreover,  aid has often been provided in ways that benefited the donors' exporters and visibility and did not contribute to reducing poverty.  Thus, it is no surprise that public opinion is sceptical of aid effectiveness.  To increase aid effectiveness, donors should target poor countries, encourage increased ownership, improve donor coordination, untie aid and make the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the organising focus of all aid.
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Debt relief
Where debt has been cancelled, it has made a real difference: Mozambique has been able to introduce free immunisations for children. Tanzania has abolished primary school fees, leading to a 65 percent increase in attendance. In Uganda, debt relief led to 2.2 million people gaining access to clean water. Malawi is training 3,600 new teachers every year and has abolished school fees. 

Poor countries are still repaying unaffordable loans which the rest of the rich world gave irresponsibly. Caritas is calling for total cancellation of all unjust and unpayable debts, for all countries that need it, by fair and transparent means. This includes an end to the damaging and unfair conditions that are part of the HIPC process.
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Trade justice
International trade has a tremendous potential to reduce poverty worldwide and drive economic growth.  A 1 percent increase in the developing countries' share of world exports would lift 128 million people out of poverty.  But present trade policies discriminate against developing countries and hinder poor country participation in the global economy. Caritas wants international trade rules to be just.
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