Government ministers and aid officials are meeting in Doha, Qatar 29 November – 2 December to discuss progress on poverty eradication against a backdrop of falling aid and economic crisis.

The Doha Follow-Up International Conference on Financing for Development will be reviewing progress since the Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) in Monterrey, Mexico 18-22 March 2002.

Caritas Internationalis will be represented at the talks by Michael Roy of Caritas France. He said, “Despite some progress in providing financing for development over the last six years, the unfortunate fact remains that every three seconds, we allow one child to die from extreme poverty.

“Aid levels are falling, anti-poverty promises are a hundred years off course, and there is a $18 billion a year gap between 2008 and 2010 in financing if we’re to meet our commitments on development. There has been a lack of political determination and courage that must be addressed at Doha.

“The world increased arms spending from $900 billion in 2002 to $1400 billion today. The overnight trillion dollar bailout of the world’s financial institutions showed money could be raised.

Governments must send a serious signal at Doha to the global community that ending poverty still matters. Aid is not charity, it is justice. Governments will have to use their imaginations as well as political determination with a sense of urgency.”

Rich donor countries have repeated their commitment to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income for aid many times Yet today only 5 countries worldwide (Denmark, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden) have reached this target.

Global aid levels, even before the financial crisis, have been in decline falling by 8.4% in real terms between 2006 and 2007. In 2007, global aid flows stood at US$103.9 billion, representing just 0.28% of the combined national income of developed countries. Governments collectively need to provide an additional US$18 billion per year between 2008 and 2010. These disappointing figures fail to take account of governments inflating their aid figures by counting spending on debt relief, educating foreign students and housing refugees in Europe.

Since Monterrey, there has been no progress on other commitments either such as trade reform and tax evasion. However, there have been successful initiatives on debt cancellation, fighting corruption and using innovative financing methods to raise funds.

Achieving sustainable development and lifting people out of poverty cannot depend solely on funding provided by aid. Financial resources can be mobilised in the developing countries themselves. This requires greater efforts in fighting corruption and tax evasion within a global partnership involving governments and private businesses. Experiences, such as the tax on air tickets, have shown that international taxes could provide fruitful revenues for development, without distorting private markets.

Benefits to the poor resulting from efficient and sufficient fund mobilisation need coherence and coordination across development, trade, agriculture, and migration policies.

Please call Patrick Nicholson on +39 06 698 79 725 or +39 334 359 0700 or email nicholson@caritas.va with any requests