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Issue of the day: International aid
Party spokesmen debate the issue of international development.
Labour: International development secretary Hilary Benn
With Britain's presidency of both the G8 and the EU in 2005, and the Commission for Africa, the prime minister has identified Africa as his priority. If we are going to seize this moment in history, then four things must happen.
First, we need significantly to increase aid to developing countries. Five countries have reached the UN’s target of 0.7 per cent of their gross national income being spent, each year, on overseas development. Six more, including the UK, have set timetables to do so. We will challenge others to do more. We also need immediate funding if we are going to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
Second, we want 'better aid'; aid that supports partner countries' own plans for reducing poverty. And we need donors to work more closely together with developing countries.
Third, we want further debt relief. An idea, which was almost literally laughed at 15 years ago, has now seen 27 countries freed of the burden of over $70 billion of debt. The UK, for its part, has cancelled bilateral debts; and as of January 1, we have also promised to pay our share (10 per cent) of the debt service owed to the World Bank and the African Development Bank by the world's poorest countries.
Fourth, we want to see a better and fairer trade deal for developing countries when the WTO meets in Hong Kong in December. It is trade, above all, that can allow countries to earn their way out of poverty. And it is high tariffs and subsidised products from developed countries - together with a lack of infrastructure - which are preventing them from doing so. We will push very hard for that better trade deal in 2005.
The lives of literally millions of people in Africa and Asia depend on us doing what needs to be done. Luckily, we have the generosity and support of our own citizens as we set about making it happen.
Conservative: International development spokesman Alan Duncan
Last year 2.5 million Africans died of Aids; equivalent to nearly 17 tsunamis. Every month, malaria claims about same number of lives as those who died as a result of the Asian tsunami, and many hundreds of thousands die each year due to conflict, disease and hunger.
The only way in which poverty can be overcome in the long term is through trade. This year will be a test of the developed world's willingness to lower barriers to trade with the developing world. I believe that Britain must lead the way in Europe and push for an end to EU agricultural export subsidies and a reduction of barriers to agricultural trade.
Many countries' capacity to invest and to trade is held back by the burden of debt. Over the past decade, both Labour and Conservative governments have led the way in moves to remove the burden of debt from the world's poorest countries, and I genuinely admire Gordon Brown's role in the recent breakthrough in the G7 on unsustainable debt.
I have recently announced that the next Conservative government will increase aid spending from £4.5 billion to £5.3 billion over the next three years, and we will work toward achieving by 2013 the UN's 0.7 per cent target for the proportion of gross national income going into international development.
However, increased aid spending will not be effective if it isn't spent effectively; and long-term support for increased development spending will only be sustained if the public believe that money isn't being diverted to other areas or wasted.
Good governance is essential if aid is going to achieve long term improvements to the lives of the world's poorest. I believe that Britain has a duty to put the importance of good governance at the centre of its development policy.
Liberal Democrats: International development spokesman Tom Brake
Million of people are driven to flee their homes by conflict; humanitarian crises in places such as the Darfur region of Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Uganda and Chechnya often have political solutions, but the political will is lacking.
Disease such as TB and malaria can treated with drugs and doctors but they are in short supply in the developing world. As Dr Jeffrey Sachs points out, the 'silent tsunami' of malaria kills as many people every month as died in the Boxing Day tragedy.
The public's generosity must translate into real and sustained pressure for change. We can do something about the crippling effects of the EU common agricultural policy on farmers in the developing world. We can do something about the poaching of doctors and nurses from countries with fragile health systems. We can do something about the climate change which is rightly described as a bigger threat than terrorism.
Poor communities are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation, but global warming is also manifested in natural disasters which do not respect international borders.
The anecdotal evidence suggests that international development issues are prominent in most MPs' postbags. The public can drive international development up the political agenda by making it abundantly clear to politicians of all colours and at all levels that there are votes to be won in fighting poverty, disease, conflict and environmental decline. The long-term legacy of the tsunami must be the political will to effect change and realise a world free from poverty.
The above texts are edited versions of articles which first appeared in The House Magazine.
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