Ordinary Burmese live in poverty as Western investment enriches a repressive military regime. Photo: Bloomberg NewsThere is much to commend in the federal government's response to the recent Independent Review of Australia's aid program. The government has promised to provide greater access for women and children to maternal and child health services, greater investments in food security, safe water and increased sanitation and hygiene, more funds for fighting disease and enabling more children, in particular girls, to attend school for longer.
Critically, the government's aid review also highlights the importance of people – rather than countries – as the focus of Australian aid. The welcome mandate for a re-energised Australian aid program is that the fundamental purpose of aid is to help people overcome poverty.
But while progress in all of these areas is central to reducing poverty, at Oxfam we have learned through bitter experience and considerable research that effective aid goes well beyond increasing our contribution of money, food, teachers, or health workers.
Poverty is reinforced by a complex web of factors. When people's human rights are denied, or they suffer the consequences of entrenched inequalities, they are more often than not poor – and remain poor for life. The child denied a basic education, the bonded labourer born into semi-slavery or girl born into a repressive society will likely live a lifetime of poverty.
When people have a lack of basic rights or voice such that they are excluded from voting or other democratic processes to make their voices heard, and a subsequent inability to hold those in power to account, it becomes nearly impossible for them to escape poverty.
This is why it is so important that the future Australian aid program delivers on the government's commitment to promote and support human rights in developing countries. Addressing power imbalances, or increasing peoples' voice in democratic processes too often end up in the too-hard basket because they require complex – and at times politically sensitive – approaches that do not yield quick, easily measurable results. Yet addressing these issues is a fundamental part of lifting people out of poverty.
The government's commitment to addressing gender inequality is equally critical to the future effectiveness of the aid program. Why? Because the face of 21st century poverty is most likely that of a poor woman in a developing country. Women comprise 70 per cent of the world's poor and do 50 per cent of the world's work, but earn only 10 per cent of the world's income and control 1 per cent of the world's property and assets. Gender inequality represents the most fundamental obstacle to the eradication of poverty; women's empowerment and equality is critical for our future aid program.
Australian aid needs to look at how it can make sure poor people have a greater role in their own development. This means giving them a chance to speak out with their own governments, and through local and national parliaments. Encouragingly, the government's response to the aid review acknowledges this and could provide a platform for poor communities and civil society in developing countries to more effectively have a say in decisions affecting them.
Increasing the accountability and transparency of Australian aid is another welcome feature of the aid review. A new Transparency Charter will enable the Australian public to have greater access to information about the effectiveness of our aid program, and a raft of measures designed to demonstrate the results of the aid program to Australian taxpayers will be implemented. In pursuing this agenda in Australia, we must not forget the importance of our aid program also being accountable to the people we are delivering aid to. This means providing accessible, meaningful information about the aid program to the people who stand to benefit from it.
Poverty is complex because investing in people is challenging. The government response to the aid review provides a platform to build an aid program that is truly focused on improving people's lives through a deeper engagement with the causes of poverty.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/tackling-poverty-is-about-more-than-money-20110706-1h276.html#ixzz1SN0JpbuR
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