Are U.S. policies generous to the poorest poor?
Earth & Sky asked Jomo Kwame Sundaram of the United Nations.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram is a Malaysian economist, currently serving in the United Nations. He says his job is to understand and propose policies that might enhance and improve the position of the poor.
Earth & Sky’s Jorge Salazar spoke with Dr. Jomo in March, 2006. He talked about U.S. aid to other nations, and about one of the poorest nations, Africa.
Salazar: Are U.S. policies generous to the poorest of the poor?
Jomo: There are many misconceptions about the generosity of the American public towards the developing countries, especially the poorest developing countries.
Many Americans believe, according to recent polls, that between 20 to 30 percent of the U.S. government spending goes for development funds and aid to the poor people of other countries. In fact, this is far from true.
Salazar: So what are the numbers on this?
Jomo: The U.S. contribution right now is less than 0.2 percent of gross national income, compared to the recommended U.N. target of 0.7 percent. The United States contributes one of the lowest percentages for aid purposes which goes out to other countries. And this situation is actually a very recent situation which has developed mainly since the 1990s. There was a slight reversal in this decade, but the reversal has not been great enough.
Salazar: Are you saying that America isn’t generous?
Jomo: On the contrary, it’s that the American public actually believes that far more is being done than what is actually occurring.
To make matters worse, a great deal of what is spent goes to dealing with the priority areas of U.S. foreign policy. For instance, it now goes to Iraq, to Afghanistan, to Israel, to Egypt and to Columbia, and not necessarily to the poorest countries, or most deserving countries.
And of course there’s also private philanthropy from the United States, which is important. The efforts by some foundations in terms of trying to develop new drugs to deal with tropical diseases is extremely important.
Salazar: What difference would it make if more Americans realized that aid isn’t reaching the poor?
Jomo: The American public would probably try to influence things to ensure that there be far more aid to the most deserving, and that these would become priority areas, to ensure that the role of American aid in the world would be much more developmental and much more helpful.
That was the case in the period of the late 1940s, when the Marshall Plan was extremely crucial to the rebuilding of Europe in that period. The generosity of the American public was very significant. Well over 3 percent of gross domestic product, or GDP, went to aid at that point, compared to less than 0.2 percent currently.
Salazar: Let’s put questions of aid aside for the moment. Africa is one of the poorest nations on Earth. There’s been talk of economic development within Africa that might help to lift its people out of poverty and suffering. How do you think it might be done?
Jomo: That’s a very tall order. I think that right now, there is very little foreign interest in Africa. The only foreign investments that are going into Africa are in mineral exploitation, principally petroleum.
Salazar: What does this mean to the African people?
Jomo: The major health issues in Africa – malaria, HIV AIDS, and so on – require access to cheap, affordable drugs. And this is simply not available right now. There have been a great number of restrictions on the importation of generic drugs from other sources, such as from India and Brazil. This has further set back the situation.
The developing countries were extremely reluctant to participate in international trade talks. This culminated in the demonstrations in Seattle in 1999. The developing countries were finally persuaded to participate in trade talks beginning in Doha in the year 2003. And the big incentive that was given to Africa was that affordable drugs would be available to developing countries, especially Africa, to deal with HIV AIDS and so on.
Unfortunately, that promise has not materialized. And the other promises which were made, which resulted in the Doha rounds of trade negotiations being called a developmental round, have also not materialized.
Salazar: Can Africa lift itself out of the mess that it’s in through developmental aid?
Jomo: There is a great deal of cynicism now, in Africa and elsewhere among the developing countries, about how much can be expected from these offers of good will. Last year, there were some very important developments, a significant reduction in the debt burden which Africa and other poor countries face. And this, of course, was a very important initiative. But that alone will not be enough. There’s actually been a net flow of funds out of Africa following financial liberalization. And we have seen almost three decades of very, very slow growth in Africa since the second half of the 1970s.
But one should not conclude that Africa is incapable of growth and development. Africa did rather well during the 1960s and the first half of the 1970s. One should not see Africa as being condemned to its current situation.
Salazar: Are there any bright spots in Africa’s outlook?
Jomo: In recent years, there’s been some improvement in the situation in Africa, mainly because of the increase in the price of oil and some other primary commodities. But, unfortunately, African growth and development has been setback with trade liberalization. As a consequence African manufacturing and industrial capacity is almost nonexistent today outside of South Africa.
Even some of the new agriculture – which was being introduced in Africa, soon after independence in the 1960s and the 1970s – has been basically undermined. Even food security itself has been undermined. On top of that, the deteriorating climatic situation has resulted in a greater frequency of droughts. This combination of worsening climate on the one hand, plus the undermining of food security, has resulted in the greater frequency of food emergencies in Africa in recent years.
So, there are no simple answers to all this, unfortunately. But it will certainly require far greater appreciation of the root causes of the problems which Africans face. And it will require a revision of many of the policies and a reform of the institutions which have been so influential in undermining African development over the last three decades.
According to Wikipedia, Jomo Kwame Sundaram “is widely perceived to be an outspoken intellectual, with unorthodox non–partisan views.” Dr. Jomo was born in Malaysia, and educated as an economist. currently serves as the United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). He was also the founder chair of International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs), and sat on the Board of the United Nations Research Institute For Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva. He has authored over 35 monographs, edited over 50 books and translated 11 volumes besides writing many academic papers and articles for the media.
“Foreign Aid: An Introductory Overview of U.S. Programs and Policy,” Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, updated January 19, 2005 (download the PDF)
Americans on addressing world poverty. Americans support U.S. and G8 countries committing to spend 0.7% GDP on world poverty, from WorldPublicOpinion.org.
