17 January 2005

A UN report which highlights Britain's inadequate aid effort could weaken the UK's position at July's G8 summit, says ActionAid, a member of the Make Poverty History coalition.

"The UK government talks the talk on international development" said Steve Tibbett, ActionAid UK head of policy and campaigns, "but this report shows that they've yet to walk the walk. It's going to be difficult for the UK's leaders to credibly press for more and better aid, debt cancellation and trade justice at the forthcoming G8 summit when they continue to fall short in their own development efforts".

The UN Millennium Project report, by economist Jeffrey Sachs, anticipates that the UK's aid in 2006 will fall $700 million short of its 'fair share' contribution to the cost of reaching the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals. ActionAid welcomes Sachs's recognition that more aid works and is needed, but accuses him of poverty of ambition in setting targets well below the 0.7% of national income that donors are committed to spending on aid.

The Make Poverty History coalition is calling for a larger and more immediate increase in UK aid. It says Britain should raise its contribution by $3.9 billion in 2005, and reach the 0.7% target by 2010.

Professor Sachs had an intensive round of high level meetings before the report's release, with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown among others. Perhaps because of political sensitivities, the report says nothing about the controversial liberalisation and privatisation conditions attached to aid by donors, including the UK.

"The report seems reluctant to question the prevailing development orthodoxies of the past 25 years, despite the dismal results", said Patrick Watt, senior policy officer at ActionAid. "It has taken a gung-ho approach to trade liberalisation in poor countries, despite the evidence that this can undermine poverty reduction, and the very different lessons shown by the East Asian economies."