strategy
Increasing overseas development aid
Context:
Substantial new and additional funding is required for sustainable development and implementation of Agenda 21. Developed countries reaffirmed their commitment to reach the accepted United Nations target of 0.7% of GNP for ODA and, to the extent that they had not yet achieved that target, agreed to augment their aid programmes in order to reach that target as soon as possible and to ensure prompt and effective implementation of Agenda 21. Some countries have agreed to reach the target by the year 2000. Those countries that had already reached the target were to be commended and encouraged to continue contributing to the common effort to make available the substantial additional resources that had to be mobilized. Other developed countries, in line with their support for reform efforts in developing countries, agreed to make their best efforts to increase their level of ODA. In this context, the importance of equitable burden-sharing among developed countries was recognized. Implementation:
This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.In 1996, the international donor community agreed to launch a debt initiative designed to implement a strategy of burden-sharing among all creditors to reduce the debt of the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) to a sustainable level, thus providing an exit from the rescheduling process. Today four countries (Uganda, Bolivia, Guyana and Mozambique) have reached final completion. For the HIPCs, repeated reschedulings of bilateral debt in the past have not significantly reduced the amount of outstanding debt. Expansion of the HIPC programme, as proposed by the G-7 following the Cologne Summit in June 1999, and as endorsed by the international finance institutions at the end of September 1999, addresses the limitations of the previous initiative by providing deeper, faster and broader debt relief and broadening the scope of the initiative.
Increasing concern has been voiced about the urgent need to reduce poverty in poor countries. In 1999 the members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of OECD have renewed their commitments in respect of a development partnership strategy designed to reduce the proportion of the world's population living in extreme poverty by 50 per cent by the year 2015. The volume of ODA should be progressively brought into line with the United Nations target of 0.7 % of industrialized countries' GDP and the target of 0.2 % for the LDCs. In addition, the international community could consider the possibilities of bolder initiatives in this field whose objectives would include contributing to human development. Lessons should also be drawn from successful examples of the channelling of official aid with a view to encouraging the mobilization and effective use of official resources for development.
Constrains:
Being a burden to others Facilitates:
Increasing aid to developing countriesUsing overseas development aid to reduce international migrationImproving financial resources and mechanisms for sustainable development Subjects:
Society → OverseasDevelopment → Development
Development → Aid
Type Classification:
E: Emanations of other strategies Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
