Aiding Africa is good but 'Don't forget Asia'

Aiding Africa is good but 'Don't forget Asia'

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

With a variety of musical charity concerts such as Live Aid in
the 1980s and the recent Live8, many heads of state have turned
to Africa to assist the development problems there, which is a
great thing to do.

However, half a world away from Africa, the region that
comprises two-thirds of the world's poor, people are crying out
"Don't forget Asia."

A working group on the second day of the ministerial meeting
on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Asia and the Pacific
reiterated the cry, demanding more innovative aid mechanisms and
debt relief.

Indian State Minister for External Affairs E. Ahamed said that
while the primary responsibility for the development lies with
individual countries, many developing countries lack institutions
and capacities.

Therefore, development aid should be integrated properly with
development strategies of recipient countries.

"Approaches to international development financing should not
only be about supply of resources, but should also explicitly
take into account the nature of investment demand.

"Development of infrastructure and capacity-building are
important not only for sustained growth, but also for providing
institutional capacity to absorb inflow of resources," Ahamed
addressed the discussion, which was focused on promoting a
regional compact.

He also pointed to the harmonization of aid, which he said was
still an elusive issue as most donor countries had their own aid
packages with sets of conditions..

Also, while the official development assistance has increased
to reach the MDGs, it has been concentrated in a few countries,
and mainly for debt relief and emergency distress assistance.

In the period of 2001 to 2003, for instance, of the total aid
increase of US$16.5 billion, $6 billion was for debt relief, $3
billion for emergency distress relief and $4.5 billion for
technical cooperation. That left of only $3 billion for increased
multilateral and bilateral aid.

The pre-condition of "clean society and good governance" for
giving aid would condemn the societies trapped in the spiral of
poverty and corruption to the same vicious circle.

There were also emphasis on trade access, infrastructure
development, capacity-building and transfer to appropriate
technologies to developing countries, rather than a simplistic
approach focusing disproportionately on aid.

Aside from aid and debt relief, the working group also called
for solid intra-regional cooperation, particularly as there are
huge socio-economic disparities in the region.

The vice president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Geert
van der Linden urged the countries in Asia and the Pacific to
come up with more solid visions in order to narrow the gap
between them.

"There is no agreed vision so far, as the actions have been
fragmented," he addressed the seminar.

It is not clear whether the lack of internal vision was due to
an absence of trust among the countries, a lack of a mechanism or
a lack of modalities.

As there is unlikely any European Union (EU) style institution
available in the short-term period, van der Linden urged them to
seek other methods to agree.

"There's a need for future internal vision, otherwise it will
be difficult for the region to step up."