Photographer : Andrew Blyberg
Australia has failed to live up to its promises to our less fortunate neighbours—it has failed to adequately fund its foreign aid programs. But recently, youth-led grassroots movements have started to hold the government accountable, and they have begun to make an impact.
How have we failed?
In signing the United Nations (UN) Millennium Declaration in 2000, Australia promised to help halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. The declaration asked us to ‘spare no effort to free [our fellow people] from abject and dehumanising poverty’ and agree to a foreign aid contribution target of 0.7 per cent of Australia’s Gross National Income (GNI) per year, or approximately $7.5 billion last financial year.
We are now more than halfway between signing the declaration and the target date, yet we are not halfway to achieving our goal. Australia is currently giving approximately 0.3 per cent of our GNI which leaves us ranked 15 out of the 22 countries that are part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Both major political parties claim to remain committed to the target of 0.7 per cent, justifying their inaction by arguing that there is no room in the budget for a scaled up foreign aid program. But last year, Australia allocated just $3.15 billion to its foreign aid program, in the context of a $10.6 billion surplus. Tim Costello, World Vision Chief Executive Officer, pointed out that ‘when we have such a massive budget surplus the 700 million people living in poverty in our region might have expected more’.
Furthermore, we remain one of only two countries in the world that include refugee processing and detention centres as part of the foreign aid budget. This means that the foreign aid program is even less well funded than the numbers represent.
Have we achieved anything?
Papua New Guinea is Australia’s largest aid recipient of the last 30 years and there have been significant development outcomes over that time. Financial support for road maintenance and crop production in Bougainville has helped to restore economic growth; access to basic education has doubled; and the infant mortality has been almost halved.
There is, however, much more work to be done. The Asia-Pacific region remains one of the poorest, most poverty stricken areas in the globe. For example, East Timor remains poorer even than Sudan or the Congo, with 42 per cent of the population living in extreme poverty. Almost half of the population are under the age of 15, making it one of the youngest nations in the world, yet one in five children have no access to primary school education.
What impact can young people make?
Despite a history of failing to adequately fund our overseas aid programs, there has been a strong grassroots movement led by young Australians demanding more of their government.
In the past two years, youth-led movements have influenced Australia’s foreign aid policy dramatically. The 2006 Make Poverty History concert in Melbourne, attended by 14,000 young Australians, received worldwide media attention and put significant pressure on the government to increase foreign aid.
Last year’s Zero Seven Road Trip mobilised 1,000 young people from around Australia in a lobbying campaign that culminated in a projection of the Make Poverty History message ‘It’s our time’ onto the iconic Sydney Opera House sails.
At the climax event of the Road Trip, Kevin Rudd announced that a Labor Government would commit to a foreign aid target of 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015, which falls short of the 0.7 per cent target but still represents the greatest time-tabled commitment to increase Australia’s foreign aid program since its conception. There has been no change in policy since Labor won the 2007 federal election but it is encouraging that the foreign aid program has remained untouched during the recent major spending cuts to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
Where do we go from here?
We need to keep pushing for more and better aid. The Iraq war has cost Australian tax payers approximately $3 billion and last year’s federal budget allocated an extra $6.1 billion to the Department of Defence for military recruitment over the next decade. But where is the real ‘war or terror’ when every day 30,000 children die around the world from preventable causes.
We should ‘spare no effort’ in fighting this abhorrent injustice. Grassroots movements have brought about significant positive changes to Australian’s foreign aid program in recent years. It is now up to our generation to continue the fight for a more just program, for a more compassionate nation.
I would like to encourage all ActNow members to respond with their views on this issue.
How do I know this?
Websites
Website Australian Tax Office, 2007-08 Budget at a Glance http://www.ato.gov.au/budget/2007-08/at_a_glance/html/at_a_glance.htm
ACFID Media Website
http://www.acfid.asn.au/news-media/media-releases
AusAID Website
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/country/papua.cfm
MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Website http://www.makepovertyhistory.com.au
Oaktree Foundation Website
http://www.theoaktree.org.au
OECD Website
http://www.oecd.org/dac
Millennium Declaration, UN Website http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm
World Vision Media Website http://www.worldvision.com.au/media/
Zero Seven Website http://www.zeroseven.org
Books
Feildhouse, DK 1999. The West and the Third World, Oxford: Blackwell
Sachs, Jeffrey D 2005. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, The Penguin Press: New York,
Academic Articles
German, Tony. Randel, Judith 2000. Trends Towards the New Millennium, in Judith Randel, Tony Randel & Deborah Ewing (eds), The Reality of Aid 2000: An Independent Review of Poverty Reduction and Development Assistance, London: Earthscan
