Aid must go on despite bank rescues, say Geldof and Stern

Ashley Seager
guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 March 2009 17.42 GMT

The rich world should increase its aid donations to poor countries despite the financial crisis and because of climate change, Bob ­Geldof and Lord Stern said today.
Addressing a conference in London organised by the Department for International Development (DFID), both men said they were worried that commitments by developed countries to increase their aid flows to 0.7% of national income were under threat because of the cost of bailing out banks.
"Aid needs to continue – it is critical," Geldof said. "Compared to aid flows to ourselves – our banks – these are tiny amounts to give to an entire continent like Africa.
"Just as with climate change, it is the poorest who did the least to cause the crisis but they who will suffer the most."
He urged the G8 nations, in particular, to keep the pledges made at their Glen­eagles summit in 2005 to increase aid flows by $50bn (£36bn). But he criticised countries for backtracking on those promises and singled out Italy. "Berlusconi doesn't give a shit," he said.
He appealed to countries not to retreat into the "stupidity" of protectionism and said it was crucial that the G20 meeting in London in early April should come up with a proper, co-ordinated response to the financial crisis. "We got into this together and we have to get out of it together."
Lord Stern, author of the Stern Review of climate change in 2006, said poor countries should be the focus of efforts to relieve global poverty and climate change.
"The two great challenges of the 21st century are the battle against poverty and the management of climate change. On both we must act strongly now and expect to continue that action over the next decades."
He called for rich countries to raise their aid flows to 1% of gross domestic product rather than the 0.7% target most are committed to as a way of providing extra resources to poor countries to enable them to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change.
"With the private flows that could come with them and the growth and poverty reduction they could help foster, I think that these flows would constitute very wise investments for the world as a whole as well as being our duty as citizens of the world."
Ed Milliband, energy and climate change secretary, added that it was crucial to set up a properly functioning global carbon market because that would not only foster private financial flows to poor countries but enable them to enjoy low-carbon growth that would also benefit the rich world.
"I believe there's no substitute for carbon reductions at home but we have to build up a global carbon market. We must have both public and private finance."