Aid under pressure
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2009-06-02
Total Pages: 72
ISBN-13: 9780215530509
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn the current economic crisis, poor countries are experiencing significantly reduced income from trade, remittances and foreign investment. As a result, an additional 90 million people are expected to be living in poverty by the end of 2010, and 400,000 more children are likely to die. Progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating hunger and extreme poverty has been set back three years. At the G20 summit in London in April, agreement was reached to provide billions of dollars of additional resources for the international financial institutions (IFIs), with the majority going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This will provide a much needed boost for balance of payments support, yet it remains unclear how much of the funding will benefit developing countries. The huge increase in resources for the IFIs needs to be matched by governance reforms and developing countries need to be given a stronger voice on the boards and in the decision-making processes of the multilateral institutions. The recession should not be used as an excuse to reduce aid flows but developing countries must also be assisted to derive the maximum benefit from their own resources. They lose billions of dollars each year to tax evasion by international companies. The UK has a clear responsibility to address enforcement of international tax standards in relation to those British Overseas Territories which are tax havens. More effort is needed towards securing an agreement in the pro-development Doha round of World Trade Organisation negotiations. Finally, DFID must do more to show the public the many and varied positive outcomes of its work in poor countries.
