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Aid Giving

© Kate Evans

Even at election time, there is one issue over which hangs a deathly silence - and I use the word deathly advisedly, we are talking about the lives and deaths of real people. Beside domestic issues such as health, education, crime, the state of the railways (in the UK at least), overseas aid has virtually slipped off the political slate. There is no kudos to being ranked highly as a foreign aid giver, for once governments seem unconcerned with being first or biggest.

The United Nations recommends countries divert 0.7% of their GNP to foreign aid. Hardly sounds a lot. But of the top 15 aid givers, only Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden reach this target. Britain gives less than 0.3%, the US is 21st in the league, giving less than 0.1%. Overall the amount allocated in aid by rich countries as a % of GNP is decreasing dramatically. In 1982 it was somewhere around 0.37%, in 1997 it dipped to almost 0.2%.

But why should we give aid anyway? What does it matter to us?

Ignoring basic humanitarian arguments, we could take a look at an issue which is high on the present UK and European policy agenda - refugees. There will always be some movement of people, and most people agree this is a good thing (most of us being refugees of some kind ourselves, unless we still live where we were born), bringing new skills and enriching ways of life. However, the movement of people en masse is generally caused by two things: war and poverty.

The UK policy on refugees has mainly focused on what happens to people when they arrive in Britain - or rather preventing them from getting here at all. Another way of looking at things could be to tackle poverty on a world-wide basis, thus enabling people to stay in the countries of their birth.

Paying our dues Secondly, if globalization means that we cannot avoid wrecking the ways of life in other countries, we can at least clean up our mess. A recent BBC report on Goa - holiday destination for a lot of Brits, they make up 8 out of 10 of them - explored how the hotels and services expected by most tourists are causing massive difficulties for the population. The swimming pools are draining the water supplies. The disposal of waste and garbage (especially the plastic bottles used for drinking water) is causing health and pollution problems.

Another argument used against giving aid is that it just disappears into the pockets of the rich in the receiving countries because of mismanagement or