THIRD WORLD (Mini-articles) Index

The British aid charity Oxfam in a report published yesterday warned of the destabilising effects of poverty on first and third world governments alike, and called for a "new vision for human security and poverty eradication into the next century." Western self-interest, as well as compassion for the world's poor, justifies a campaign for the fundaemntal reform of international organisations and the world's trading system.

"Just as crime and social breakdown in the industrial world will not respect the boundaries of affluent middle-class suburbs, so the forces unleashed by conflict and globalk poverty will not respect national borders, however well-defended they may be," the study warns.

The number of people living in poverty could rise to 1.5 billion by 2025, Oxfam calculates, and points to widening income disparities in the US and Europe as well as growing poverty in Africa. "At no stage in post-war history have the challenges facing humanity been so great and the political vision of the world leaders so myopic," says Oxfam.

"Deepening poverty is one of the main driving forces behind the civil coinflicts which are creating unprecedented numbers of refugees . . . the growth of sprawling urban slums and . . . environmental degradation, linking town and country in a vicious circle of decline."

From the Financial Times, 22 June 1995

Overseas development aid from the world's richest countries to then poorest fell by $5 billion in 1993. This is the first significant fall in more than a decade.

The average of wealthy nations' contributions has fallen from 0.33 per cent in 1992 to 0.30 per cent in 1993. This now represents the smallest proportion of wealthy nations' GNP than at any time in the last 20 years. This is in stark contrast to the lofty promises made in last year's Social Summit in Copenhagen. A report by the International Council of Voluntary Agencies says that, even as the volume of aid falls, it is increasingly influenced by commercal and political concerns rather than the need for poverty relief.

"Governments are in danger of giving up in the fight against absolute poverty," says Tony German, one of the authors of the report. And this is likely to continue, too, in view of efforts in the US Congress to cut aid from America by an aditional $2 billion. Also, Canadian aid is also due to fall by 15 per cent in 1995/6.

The two main factors which seem to be influencing the giving of aid are: (a) private investments to the developing world rose substantially during 1993, offsetting cuts in official aid; (b) governments in the OECD countries are finding it increasingly difficult to fund welfare payments to their own poor and old people. The latter trend is certainly likely to continue for as long as we can foresee.

From Newsletter of the Job Society, June 1995

A few miles inland from the Red Sea, at a place where the desert slips into the sleepy sprawl of Port sudan, there is a graveyard. It is the last resting place not for the thousands of wretched human beings who have for 20 years or more flocked to this city seeking food, comfort and escape from famine, poverty and war, but for scores of vehicles. It contains the twisted carcasses of lorries. These are Band Aid lorries, hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of shattered illusions, bought with the proceeds of Bob Geldof's frantic rock'n roll crusade that promised to feed the world but failed to deliver.

What a monumental exercise in self-deception Band aid was! Now, almost ten years to the day since the Wembley Live Aid concert that galvanised the rock aristocracy to perform and the public to give £50 million to save the starving in Ethiopia and Sudan, it is hard to believe we were so gullible. It was an act of mass generosity but it only further reinforced the African continent's permanent dependency on aid.

What if Geldorf has not been inspired? What if there had been no Live/Band Aid? Wouldn't millions of people have died? Wouldnt we have felt dreadful as we stood by and dod nothing? Well, we stood by and watched as a million Rwandans fell victim to genocide last year. We ignore everyday killings in Sarajevo. We know now we are powerless. Our interventions do little good. We know, too, that when governments do intervene--as in the dramatic airlift of little Irma from Sarajevo two years ago--they do so to court popularity. At least we know we are not kidding ourslves. Now we know that Band-aid merely covers a wound, it does not heal it. Meanwhile from Ethiopia, reports ar now coming through that 7.5 million people are facing famine and that 1 million tons of food is needed urgently. Somehow, this year, I don't think there's going to be another Live Aid concert.

From "Rwanda, Murders in the Mists", published by Coronet, 1995

The World Bank, after years of trying eradicate poverty in developing countries, has adopted a new strategy of channelling tiny loans to "the poorest of the poor" through grass-roots organisations. Using as a model, programmes like the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, the World Bank and other international donors have pledged $200 million to be disbursed through non-governmental organisations over the next several years. The Grameen Bank has won international praise for providing "micro-loans" -- about $100 -- mostly to women, to set up their own small businesses.

The donors, who met in Washington last month have set up the Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) as a vehicle to co-ordinate the lending and pour new resources into the scheme. The group includes several development banks and countries. The World Bank will contribute $30 million and oversee the harmonisation of a patchwork of programmes which have developed around the world. The object is to create "enabling environments" among the governments to assist micro-lending.

An estimated one billion people in the world still live in severe poverty. The World Bank sees micro-lending as an important complement to health and education projects it funds in developing countries. For some time, the large development agencies have believed that getting money to women is crucial to sustainable development. Many are heads of household and are less likely than men to leave the family. The Grameen Bank lends mostly to women, who have a higher repayment record -- 97 per cent -- than men. Half the loans have gone to livestock- and poultry-raising enterprises, while 25 per cent have entered processing or manufacturing and the other 25 per cent have set borrowers up in trading and shopkeeping enterprises. It is believed that 500 million micro-entrepreneurs want credit. No one knows how much is available. The Kenya Rural Enterprise Programme opened its first branch in the largest slum in Nairobi in 1990, and disbursed $450,000 to 1,253 borrowers in its first 16 months. Its repayment rate was 98.2 per cent.

Financial Times 18 July 1995