This fortnight's thi>eElection call for More Aid, Better Aid Issue 214
 
 

Election call for More Aid, Better Aid

With MasterChef now wrapped for another year, there’ll be ample time this month to get swept away in election fever. Well, perhaps not. Perhaps it may feel a little more like drowning in a sea of sound bites and at times the candidates may induce in us an uncomfortable cold sweat; but there’s no denying that this month the democratic process will take its rightful place on Australia’s centre-stage.
 
For Australians whose worldview extends beyond the confines of their own electorate, election 2010 also presents a unique opportunity to call for leadership on international aid and development before the clock runs out on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).



Australia’s aid budget has captured the public’s attention a number of times this year and on few occasions has it come out shining. There’s been considerable criticism of the Government’s spending on technical assistance - and its subsequent ‘wastefulness’ - as well as debate over where Australia ought to focus its development spending. Unfortunately this commentary distracts from the considerable benefits that organisations like Caritas Australia have enacted in some of the world's poorest communities, with invaluable support from AusAID (the Australian Government’s overseas Aid Program). Yet the critics do raise a valuable question: how good is Australian aid?

For Caritas Australia, a good aid program seeks to shoulder the burden of the Global Financial Crisis and climate change in our region, recognising the serious risk imposed on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities. 

For Caritas Australia a good aid program acknowledges that extending foreign aid is in Australia’s interest: contributing to regional stability; reducing the displacement of people; and enhancing opportunities for trade and investment.

For Caritas Australia, a good aid program delivers inclusive, comprehensive and sustainable development projects at the grassroots. An effective aid program invests in local capacity, enabling communities to engage with new knowledge and innovation, to steer their own development and to understand and pursue their rights.



In recent years Caritas’ capacity to deliver this grassroots development has been bolstered by the support of the Australian Government’s agency for aid and development, AusAID. However looking at our region’s dismal outlook in the latest MDG tracking it becomes apparent that the Australian government ought to be doing more.
To ensure Australia does its part to eradicate global poverty, our nation’s leaders must commit to more aid and to better aid.

When Australia joined the millennium pledge to halve global poverty by 2015 our Government pledged to set a timetable to commit 0.7 percent of Australia’s GNI to international development assistance. Today, with only 5 years remaining on our commitment, Australia earmarks a mere 29c in every $100 of GNI for overseas development, placing Australia 16th in a list of 23 developed nations working towards the 0.7 percent target - and well below the 0.48 percent average.

Whilst nations like Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands are already ahead of the curve, both sides of Australia politics have been willing only to chart a course towards international development assistance of 0.5 percent of GNI by 2015.

This election Caritas calls on all political parties to commit to deliver more aid: to announce a clear timetable for accelerating growth in the aid budget and to commit 70c in every $100 of Australia’s GNI to save lives, to restore dignity and to instill hope in the most vulnerable communities.

Of course the measure of an aid program should not merely be its size. If Australia is to mitigate the threat climate changes poses to our Pacific Island neighbours; is to reduce the incidence of preventable disability, child mortality, birth-related deaths, and HIV; and is to enable communities to access education and employment, our leaders must preside over an aid program that addresses the causes as well as the symptoms of poverty.

(Grass-roots development models empowers community

To achieve better aid our leaders must be willing to invest in community-based development models which build on local knowledge and skills, enabling communities to be the architects of their own futures. Rather than reinvent the wheel, our elected leaders need only throw their support behind non-government organisations like Caritas Australia whose grassroots relationships and international partnerships afford extensive reach and engagement with some of the world’s most marginal communities.

By increasing the share of Australia’s development assistance delivered through NGOs, like Caritas Australia, the next federal government has the opportunity to vastly improve the quality and effectiveness of the aid it delivers throughout our region. This election, Caritas Australia calls for our leaders to announce a three percent increase in government support for accredited Australian NGOs, increasing the reach of Australian aid and ensure lasting change from bottom up.

So whether you’re already inflating balloons for your election party on August 21, or you’re just waiting for the campaigning to desist, remember that this federal election you have the capacity to lend your voice to millions in entrenched poverty; to demand more action and better action for meaningful, long-term change.

Erin Jardin, Communications Officer, Caritas Australia






 

 

 

 

    

Additional Activities and Resources

PRIMARY TEACHERS
We are approaching another federal election. While global poverty may not be the main issue the election campaigns focuses on, it is the greatest global issue of our time.

Global Poverty

1) More Aid

  • Explain that Australia only gives 0.33% of our income or 33c in every $100 the country earns. You may like to use small blocks or counters to show that this is a tiny amount.
  • Explain that Australia promised to give 0.7% or 70c in every $100 we earn.
  • Students think about why we should keep promises and what this promise would mean for 1 billion people living in poverty.
  • Students make a poster demonstrate that we need to double our help.

2) Better Aid
Governments give most of our aid directly to other governments or big companies to administer infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges. The government gives a small amount (7%) to non-government organisations like Caritas Australia to work directly with communities. When organisations like Caritas Australia work with communities on health, education and income generation projects, real and lasting change can occur.

Caritas also has a global church network so it is often more cost effective to use this network that already exists instead of going through governments or big corporations. For this reason we would like the government to increase the amount of development assistance to NGOs like Caritas from 7% to at least 10% so communities can benefit directly.
Activities:

  • Go to www.caritas.org.au and click on the ‘About us’ tab. What are the guiding principles of Caritas Australia?
  • Why do you think communities should be able to participate in their own development?

3) Just Aid
To make aid fairer, Caritas Australia would like to see the government prioritise their spending on health, education and rural agriculture.
Activities:

  • Use the MDG poster to identify which goals are related to health, education and rural agriculture. Download the poster here.
  • Divide the class into 6 groups. Assign 2 groups with the topic ‘health’, 2 groups with the topic ‘education’ and 2 groups with the topic ‘rural agriculture/farming’. Each group then develops 5 arguments as to why their topic should be given priority in the aid budget.

SECONDARY TEACHERS
We are approaching another federal election. While global poverty may not be the main issue the election campaigns focuses on, it is the greatest global issue of our time.

Global Poverty

2010 federal election: ACFID calls on all parties to deliver ‘better aid, more aid and just aid’
ACFID is the Australian Council for International Development. This federal election, ACFID is calling on all political candidates to commit Australia to play its full part in achieving the MDGs by delivering better aid, more aid and just aid as outlined in ACFID’s “Call to the Parties: 2010 Federal Election”.

Read the ACFID election document - download here

What is aid? For the purposes of these activities, aid refers to the overseas development assistance (ODA) given by the Australian Government.

More Aid
To reach the MDGs by 2015, Australia, along with other developed countries, promised to give 0.7% of our Gross National Income (GNI) to overseas development assistance (ODA) when we signed the Millennium Declaration in the year 2000. Sadly we have never managed to keep this promise.

Election Ask 1- Our new government promises to take our ODA to 0.7% by 2015.
Questions:

  • If Australia was giving 0.7% of our GNI how much money would this be for every $100 the country earns?
  • Why do you think Australia should give more aid?
  • What is Australia’s current commitment?

Election Ask 2- Support the introduction of the Robin Hood Tax.

Watch the Robin Hood Tax video clip
Questions:

  • What is the Robin Hood Tax?
  • What percentage of tax is proposed on global financial transactions?
  • Which financial transactions would not be taxed under this scheme?
  • How much money is this expected to raise?
  • Do you think this is a good idea? why/why not?

Better Aid
Currently the Government gives 7% of the total ODA to non-Government organisations (NGOs) such as Caritas Australia.

Election Ask 3- Increase the proportion of ODA given to NGOs to 10%.
Questions:

  • Why are NGOs, like Caritas Australia, able to work effectively with communities in grass roots development?
  • What are the guiding principles of Caritas Australia that promote good development? Go to the ‘About Us’ tab on the website www.caritas.org.au

Election Ask 4- Create the position of Ambassador for Women’s Rights, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in our region.
Questions:

  • What are some of the issues that you think a person in the position could address?

Election Ask 5- Monitor the impact of development programs on the poorest 20% in focus communities.
Question:

  • In Catholic Social Teaching, there is a preferential option for the poor. What do you think this means?
  • Why should development programs target the poorest of the poor?
  • What do you think are some of the challenges of working with the poorest of the poor?

Election ask 6- Tackle corruption
Questions:

  • Why do you think corruption would be a problem in communities and governments experiencing extreme poverty?
  • Why do you think development programs that improve the health, education and income of communities can help reduce corruption?

Just Aid
Australian development assistance can build a more just world.

Election Ask 7- Increase funding to health, education and rural farmers.
Questions:

  • Which of the Millennium Development Goals are related to these three areas?
  • Why do you think these three areas have been prioritised in alleviating poverty?

Election Ask 8- fully fund a disability inclusive aid program
Questions:

  • Why are people with a disability more likely to live in poverty?

Election Ask 9- fund actions to address climate change- but not from existing poverty alleviation aid money.
Questions:

  • Who will be the most affected by climate change?
  • What additional challenges does climate change present in the efforts to alleviate poverty?
  • Why should climate change adaptation and mitigation be funded separately from the money already put aside for poverty reduction?

Election Ask 10- Increase the proportion of humanitarian funding within the aid budget to 10%
Questions:

  • What are some humanitarian disasters that the Australian government has responded to over the last 5 years?
  • Why do you think more money should be allocated to emergencies?
  • What makes communities more vulnerable to the affects of humanitarian disasters?

Final Activity

  • Out of the 10 election asks outlined in the ACFID ‘Better aid, more aid, just aid’ document, which 3 do you feel most strongly about?
  • Write a letter to all candidates running in your electorate outlining your top 3 election asks and request a commitment that if they were elected they would strive to achieve these 3 asks.


 

 

 
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