|
ODA
"Come on France,
just a bit more effort!" That's the exhortation of people who
know that violence in the world is fuelled by growing inequality. It's
mine too. So I salute the commitment of those who want to "put
the pressure on". Nevertheless, I can't leave unchallenged the
assertion in "Le Monde" of 21 November that French official
development assistance (ODA) has dropped by one third under the Jospin
government.
In fact it was between
1994 and 1998 that French ODA fell sharply, from 0.56% of GDP (excluding
the Overseas Territories) to 0.34%. The Jospin government halted that
trend, common to most of the developed countries. With 0.32% in 2000
and 0.33% predicted for 2001, France is the leading contributor in
terms of percentage of GDP out of the seven major industrialized
countries (G7). Her contribution is also well above the OECD average
(0.22%), while the United States gives 0.1%.
Does that mean we
should leave it at that? I don't think so. Indeed, the Council of
European development ministers has mandated the Commission to work
with each member State on a timetable for reaching the target of 0.7%
of GDP. I have also stressed that as well as pursuing this objective
we need both to increase the aid's effectiveness and search for new
mechanisms linked to the concept of global public goods. So I am
firmly convinced that we must follow two paths: actively seek new
methods of providing aid and increase ODA.
As the World Bank and
the bodies preparing for the Monterrey Conference on Financing for
Development (March 2002) have noted, global aid will have to be
doubled if mankind is to reach by 2015 the targets for reducing
poverty adopted at the UN Millennium Assembly.
A purely quantitative
approach, however, comes up against the problem of the recipient
countries' absorption and aid implementation capacity. On its own it
can't be enough, because to be legitimate the aid has to be effective.
GLOBALIZATION/GLOBAL
PUBLIC GOODS
At the same time, we
have to meet the current challenges posed by globalization and the
emergence of issues of concern to both South and North to do with the
provision of global public goods: health, knowledge, the environment,
financial stability and security.
The government has
contributed to creating new types of financial mechanisms to address
these concerns: World Fund against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to
which the Prime Minister has announced that France will contribute EUR
150 million over three years; a substantial increase, by 2005, of our
contribution to the World Environment Fund; an unprecedented effort to
write off the debts of the poorest countries (HIPC initiative) which
in 2000 the government decided was to be in addition to the aid
already allocated. So France is going to make the highest contribution
(EUR 10 billion for cancellation of eligible countries' debts) to help
combat poverty, far more than the effort required at multilateral
level.
But we must go beyond
that. Realization of the need to ensure the existence of these world
public goods calls for a proactive and innovatory response. The
terrorist attacks of 11 September haven't reduced the legitimacy of
the criticisms of globalization. On the contrary, they have
strengthened our duty to address them.
INTERNATIONAL TAX
This is why the time
has come to lay down the principle of an international tax, linked to
a State's ability to contribute - and thus enabling contributions to
be genuinely shared - designed to limit the excesses of globalization
and finance provision of global public goods. Discussions have begun
on the taxable base: speculative financial movements, carbon emissions
(as Mr Zedillo and M. Delors are suggesting) and arms exports. We must
make progress on this path, with a twin goal: to ensure greater
stability and fairness in the world.
ODA
More ODA is
nevertheless necessary. Initially, basing themselves on the convergent
analyses of the World Bank and Zedillo Report, the OECD countries
should at the very least double their global ODA effort, raising it
from an average of 0.22% to O.44% of GDP, the first stage towards the
goal of 0.7% which we are all committed to achieving.
Looking ahead to the
Monterrey Conference, I think that the OECD countries should therefore
set themselves a twin objective: to develop new forms of financing
adapted to the challenges we are facing as a result of globalization
and double their ODA effort, which for some countries involves a
substantial effort, and for France means providing around an extra 1%
of GDP - something she must agree to if she is to be true to her
values and her vision of a more mutually-dependent, stable and fairer
world, in short, one fit for everyone to live in./.
|