Aid to poor nations 'halved since 1960s'
Monday, December 6, 2004 Posted: 1159 GMT (1959 HKT)
LONDON, England (AP) -- The amount of aid rich countries give to poorer nations has fallen by half since the 1960s, risking the lives of millions of children, a leading development charity said in a report released Monday.
As a proportion of rich countries' income, aid has fallen from an average 0.48 percent in 1960-65 to 0.24 percent in 2003, Oxfam said. The United Nations has set a target of allocating 0.7 percent of national income to aid.
Oxfam said wealthy nations need to give more aid to help meet the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals, which include cutting poverty in half, reducing child mortality and improving education by 2015.
"As rich countries get richer, they're giving less and less. This is a scandal that must stop," Oxfam Director Barbara Stocking said. "The world's poorest children are paying for rich countries' policies on aid and debt with their lives."
Oxfam calculated that 45 million more children will die in developing countries between now and 2015 than if the world were on track to meet the U.N.'s goals.
In its report, "Paying the Price," Oxfam said that 10.5 million children under the age of 5 died in developing countries in 2002. It said that figure would have been 8.4 million if the world had been on track to meet the U.N. targets -- a difference of some 2 million. It said that gap would more than double by 2015.
Oxfam singled out the United States for criticism, saying it gives just 0.14 percent of its national income in aid, making it the least generous donor by that measurement.
The charity also said that some countries will spend twice as much this year on repaying debts as on educating their children, and that debt repayments by poorer nations amount to some $100 million (74 million euros) a day.
The aid agency urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to use Britain's presidency of the G-8 group of wealthy countries next year to deliver a global deal that canceled poor countries' debt and doubled aid as well as making trade fair.
Britain spends 0.34 percent of its income on aid but the government has set a target of reaching 0.7 percent by the year 2013.
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