World Hunger Notes-- Foreign Aid, International Conferences and Poor People


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Special Report: Foreign Aid, International Conferences and Poor People

There have been at least five international conferences in 2002. These conferences are designed (usually) to get developed and developing countries together to talk about a key issue and propose responses that will be implemented. 2002 conferences include the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, the World Food Summit-- Five Years Later, the UNICEF-led United Nations Special Session on Children in New York, the G-8 meeting in Canada (large developed countries only, although some developing countries were invited to this one), and the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Foreign aid, from developed to developing countries, has as its announced goal assisting developing countries to reduce poverty and the incidence of other major problems. The idea of international conferences on one level would seem to be good: pick a major problem area such as world hunger and food production, give nations time to think about it and prepare a concrete response, and at the conference set out mutually arrived at goals to be implemented. (One would hope that addressing such major problems would be an important part of the ordinary business of the United Nations, but this does not seem the case.) The chief difficulty seems to be that countries-- both developed and developing-- do not seem willing to address the key concerns of these conferences in a concrete way-- by this we mean deploying financial and human resources to address principal concerns-- and basically respond by putting a good face on efforts currently being made to address problems. The International Conference on Financing for Development seemed the most successful, as developed country leaders did seem to agree that development assistance needed to be increased after years of decline, and did seem to make promises to do so. However we shall see, given substantially increased budget deficits in the United States and elsewhere and preparations for war by the United States. Our evaluation is that the very modest and ambiguous commitments made there will be cut by half or more in actuality. The World Food Summit-- Five Years Later, was notable for Hunger Notes for highlighting the pathetic response in the last five years to the hunger and poverty of hundreds of millions of people in the world and the pathetic response likely for the next five years. The Earth Summit/World Summit on Sustainable Development was both big and important as it was a follow-up to the Rio Earth Summit, but the conference was notable for its lack of commitment for change, especially in environmental matters. Lack of action in the environmental area was principally due to the U.S. government, whose mantras seem to be "business" and "business as usual" in environmental areas.

World Food Summit

Report on the World Food Summit Martin McLaughlin (Sept. 28, 2002)

World Summit on Sustainable Development/Earth Summit

The World Summit on Sustainable Development: Poor People are Losing the Struggle over Money and Power to Developed Country Governments James Hug (December 27, 2002.)

Powell Jeered at Earth Summit: Johannesburg Accord Passes, Activists Say U.S. Watered It Down Glen Kessler and John Jeter (Washington Post, Sept. 4, 2002. You will leave this site.)

Devastated by Our Hunger to Consume and Discard-- On the Opening of the Earth Summit/World Summit on Sustainable Development Steve Connor (The Independent [UK], August 24, 2002. You will leave this site.)

International Conference on Financing for Development/ Monterrey Conference

International Conference in Monterrey Ends With Promise of Increasing Development Assistance (March 21, 2002)

G-8 Summit

The G-8 Summit: Political Will Lacking to Eliminate African Poverty Barbara Kohnen (October 3, 2002)

G-8 Leaders Pledge to Increase Aid to Africa, Avoid Actually Committing Money Karen DeYoung and DeNeen L. Brown (Washington Post, June 28, 2002. You will leave this site.)

International Development Organization Issues and Critiques/Foreign Aid Reform

The "Coherence" Agenda of International Financial and Trade Institutions is Tightening Industrial Country Control Over Developing Countries. Aldo Caliari (December 28, 2002)

U.S. Organizations Propose Plan For World Bank Reform (May 1, 2002)

U2's Bono Makes the Cover of Time Magazine for Advocating Assistance to Poor People (and Wins Four Grammys Too) (Feb. 28, 2002. You will leave this site.)

Make Grants, Not Loans, to Poorest Countries, Treasury Secretary Tells World Bank Joseph Kahn (New York Times, Feb. 21, 2002. You will leave this site.)

The Politics of Compassion

The Washington Post (January, 2001. You will leave this site.) Foreign aid is not just, or even mainly, about helping poor people. This series by The Washington Post gives a good analysis of the forces that shape United States foreign assistance.

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