In response to an article in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) today by John Kerrin entitled African aid 'not linked to UN seat bid', ACFID's Executive Director Marc Purcell submitted the following letter to the AFR editor:
'Re: African Aid not linked to UN seat bid 23/2
Australian NGOs working in international development are very supportive of Australia’s recent and renewed engagement with the countries of Africa. Australian NGOs support development and humanitarian programs in 39 countries in Africa.
In 2008, almost 35 per cent of funds donated by the Australian community to Australian NGOs were directed to programs in a range of countries in Africa. In 2007-2008, according to ACFID members' annual reports, disbursement to Africa by NGOs was over $200 million. This clearly shows the NGO face of Australian assistance to Africa and Australian public support for development activities in Africa. By way of contrast, since 2002 around 3 per cent of Australia’s total annual Official Development Assistance (ODA) went to Africa. We welcome the recent increase in development assistance to the continent from $116.4 million in 2008/09 to $163.9 million in 2009/10. Moreover, the opening of AusAID posts in Ghana and Ethiopia, and plans for others, allows for the development of more coherent and better-planned aid delivery.
It is critical that the countries of Africa continue to benefit from the commitment to scale up Australia’s aid program to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income by 2015-16. Without such increases, current global ODA will not be sufficient to achieve a halving of global poverty and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.' |
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