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U.N. Report Cites U.S. and Japan as the
'Least Generous Donors'
NY Times
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: September 8, 2005
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 - A week before world leaders gather here to set a
course for combating global poverty, a United Nations report released on
Wednesday names the United States and Japan as among "the least generous
donors" and says American and European trade policies are hypocritical and
contribute to impoverishing African farmers.
The report also highlights shortcomings in developing countries. It notes
that India's and China's progress in reducing the easily preventable deaths of
children has slowed even as their economic growth has surged. India has 2.5
million deaths of children a year, while China is second, with 730,000.
The new document, the annual Human Development Report, calls on India and
China to tackle health inequalities aggressively. It also maintains that rich
countries must significantly increase aid if the goals they agreed to five
years ago - to halve extreme poverty and reduce deaths of children by
two-thirds by 2015, among others - are to be met.
The report was unusual for the United Nations in so specifically describing
the deficiencies of rich countries' policies. It was commissioned by the United
Nations Development Program and written by a team of experts led by Kevin
Watkins, former director of research for the charity Oxfam.
While crediting the United States with being the world's largest donor, the
report points out that among the world's richest countries, America is second
to last in aid as a portion of its national income, with Italy bringing up the
rear. Japan was third from the bottom. Aid per capita from donors ranges from
more than $200 in Sweden to $51 in the United States and $37 in Italy.
Richard Grenell, a spokesman for the United States at the United Nations,
disputed the idea that the United States is stingy. "Let me remind the authors
that President Bush has increased overall development assistance from the
United States by 90 percent since he took office," he said.
The report notes that rich countries trumpet the virtues of open markets and
free trade, even as they put up protectionist barriers against goods from poor
countries and spend hundreds of billions on subsidies that benefit large-scale
farmers, landowners and agribusiness.
"Industrial countries are locked into a system that wastes money at home and
destroys livelihoods abroad," the report says.
It singles out the European Union for a policy "that lavishes $51 billion in
support on producers." It also criticizes the United States for paying an
estimated $4.7 billion to 20,000 cotton farmers in 2005, more than the total of
American aid to Africa, a policy that the report contends gives American
producers an unfair advantage over small farmers in Burkina Faso and Mali.
The report also criticizes China and India for their policies. In China, the
erosion of public health care has worsened the situation of the rural poor, it
says. In India, it adds, inadequate public health services mean most children
are not fully immunized against diseases in the hugely populous northern states
of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
"Were India to show the same level of dynamism and innovation in tackling
basic health inequalities as it has displayed in global technology markets, it
could rapidly get on track for achieving" the targets set in 2005, the report
says.
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