Sherry Darling
New Yorker
LMK if you all would like to hear some of the BS...uh, what his office had to say.
SD
SD
Sherry Darling said:LMK if you all would like to hear some of the BS...uh, what his office had to say.
SD
O'Neill Vows More U.S. Foreign Aid
Mon Jul 1, 4:04 PM ET
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer
The United States will boost aid to the world's poor countries ? as long as
those funds bring concrete results, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill told a
United Nations gathering Monday.
Instead of funding vague "sympathetic themes," the United States will demand
measured improvements in specific areas, especially clean drinking water,
primary education and AIDS prevention.
"In the past, too much aid has been scattered into the winds of lawlessness,
corruption and unaccountability," O'Neill said at the opening of a meeting
of the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council. "For 50 years we have accepted
and expected too little from development aid."
In March, President Bushannounced the United States would increase its
assistance to developing countries by 50 percent over the next three years,
resulting in a $5 billion increase by 2006.
O'Neill said the aid initiative would be given to "countries that govern
justly, invest in people and encourage economic freedom."
The United States is developing benchmarks to measure progress in these
areas, O'Neill told reporters after his address.
"We want to measure the number of 10-year-olds that can read, write and
compute," O'Neill said. "We think the way to accomplish that is by being
much more specific than in the past."
He did not specify whether countries whose results didn't meet U.S. goals
would be cut off.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the worst effects of the current
worldwide economic slump were found among poor countries' economies, and
that primary education was key to resuscitating those economies.
"Countries committed to universal education have been far more successful in
combating poverty," Annan said. Education raises productivity, reduces
infant mortality, improves nutrition and health, helps prevent AIDS and has
a "positive impact on good governance and on conflict prevention and
peace-building," Annan said.
The United States, long chided by other rich countries for providing the
smallest per-capita share of its national wealth to the developing world, is
in the process of increasing funding for HIV and AIDS prevention efforts.
President Bush announced in March that the United States would pledge $500
million to U.N. AIDS efforts, and a further $600 million to other
international AIDS-fighting initiatives.
The Bush administration also pledged $200 million to train 420,000 teachers,
provide 250,000 scholarships for girls and supply 4.5 million textbooks to
African children, O'Neill said.
"The goal is not more teachers or more scholarships or more books," O'Neill
said. "The goal is children with full functional ability to read, write and
compute by age 10."
Referring often to his recent travels in Africa with Bono, the U2 singer and
activist, O'Neill said a new U.S. priority was on clean water, education and
reducing the spread of AIDS in Africa.
With an estimated 300 million sub-Saharan Africans without clean drinking
water, O'Neill called for development of low-cost wells for rural
communities, citing a project in West Africa that brings clean water and
basic sanitation for $17 per person, per year.
The Bush administration and international donors "all want to see faster
progress and more real results," O'Neill said to reporters after his
address.
Ultimately, the treasury secretary said, "the purpose of aid is to speed the
transition to economic independence."
Last Thursday, the Group of Eight rich countries endorsed a similar plan,
the New Partnership for Africa's Development, which offers billions of
dollars in new aid to those nations that better themselves.
oktobergirl said:
Not that I'm a huge fan of nework news, but did anyone see ABC Nightly news tonight?
I just sat there with tears in my eyes watching those Africans in Malawi eating dirt because it makes their "stomachs feel more full".
daisybean said:Sherry O'neill was pretty vague, however there is still some hope
I figured I'd post this here instead of starting a new thread.
This is a step foward, I can see O'Neill's frustration of past aid being wasted, maybe now with a structured plan of development and relief some change can occur. I think it shows that the trip was not for nothing, however I think the US could do better in terms of giving aid and relieving debt.
oliveu2cm said:i'll be interested in knowing if anyone else gets a carbon copy of that letter, as well.
Like O2 said:
When it comes to writing government officials, it's all about quantity.
Sherry Darling said:
Heh heh. Amen. Let's flood him! Keep those ppl busy sending us carbon copies of letters and maybe he'll begin to see many Americans (and much of the rest of the world) is behind this.
Verte, you're on fire! I've gotten a bit depressed and frustrated in the past few days and your fervor picks me back up!
SD