Tie Aid to Need, not Politics

Millennium Development Goals

Deary me.  Haven't we learnt from past aid failures?

The Millennium Development Goals are fantastic in that - for the very first time - they are actually tied to need.  No mention is made of politics.  Just plain old need.

The focus is on the wane.

It seems that we have learnt nothing from former geopolictial aid efforts that did little more than attempt to "Stop the Reds".

Here's a depressing stat from my adopted home of Canada:

Since 2009 Canada has pledged to spend 80 per cent of its bilateral aid on 20 'countries of focus', designated partly on the basis of ‘their alignment with Canadian foreign policy priorities.’ This includes Afghanistan, where Canadian troops are fighting, and middle-income Colombia, with whom Canada had just signed a free trade deal, while seven low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa were dropped.

Support the middle-income Colombia and drop seven poorer sub-Saharan countries?  How could this be anything other than geopolitical aid?

The Democratic Republic of Congo receives $10 per extremely poor person per year, well short of the $70 promised under the Millennium Development Goals.  Israel - the biggest recipient of US aid dollars - gets about $400 per year per citizen.

The Millennium Development Goals are inspiring and can be achieved, but only if we stand together in an act of human solidarity and forget all this political bullshit.