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	More help for the Poor need not cost ordinary taxpayers any more money by Caritas International / Oxfam International   Sep 2009   Financial crisis no excuse to scale down aid says Caritas.   World leaders are using the financial crisis as an excuse to scale down foreign aid, relief organisation Caritas International says.   According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the US and European Union have committed 40 times more money to rescuing the global financial crisis than they have to reducing poverty or addressing climate change.   But prior to the global financial crisis, significant headway was being made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, which includes a 2015 goal to reduce hunger worldwide.   Lesley-Anne Knight, secretary-general of Caritas International, says governments are using the financial collapse as a reason to fall behind on aid.   "I think it"s quite easy for governments to use this global financial crisis as an excuse for failing to meet aid targets," she said. "I would say in many cases, that excuse does not wash."   Ms Knight says it is appalling how governments have been able to commit such huge amounts of money to bail out banks at the expense of foreign aid. "Far smaller amounts of aid would reduce the poverty of so many countries and yet those commitments seem so difficult to reach," she said. "To be good international citizens, we need to be taking more of a lead to be putting aid commitments back on target."   Ms Knight says if countries reached their 2015 targets, poverty and hunger would not be eliminated, but it would make an enormous difference. To make matters worse, the global financial crisis has produced many millions more people who live in poverty due to shrinking economies and unemployment.   "If just the 22-member countries of the OECD ... committed to a 0.7 per cent target, that in itself would only be $280 billion - that would be the minimum to achieve those targets," Ms Knight said. "The political will simply isn"t there. We don"t put enough finances into eradicating poverty and we don"t have the right policies."   Sept 2009 (Oxfam International)   G20 should provide a $280 billion bailout for millions of poor people struggling to survive the economic crisis, Oxfam says.   A currency transaction tax is one of three measures that could raise much needed funds for developing countries without putting any extra burden on ordinary taxpayers. The proposals are set out in a new Oxfam briefing paper, Money for Nothing: Three ways the G20 could deliver up to $280 billion for poor countries.   Reforming tax havens alone could release $160bn, reallocating an already agreed IMF bailout could free up another $89bn, and introducing a currency transaction tax could raise at least a further $30bn – each a significant sum to help poor people suffering in the crisis.   The money is desperately needed to prevent the crisis derailing efforts to reduce poverty as developing countries suffer job losses because of falling trade and capital flows. According World Bank and UN estimates, between 50-100 million more people will be trapped in poverty this year, forced to survive on less than $1.25 per day.   Max Lawson, Oxfam senior policy adviser, said: “The beauty of these proposals is that they allow the G20 to bailout poor people without asking ordinary taxpayers at home to put their hands in their pockets. Rich countries that spent $18 trillion bailing out banks should not be allowed to plead tight budgets as an excuse for failing to help poor people – especially when there are alternative sources of funding available that would cost them little or nothing.   “A currency transaction tax for development would force fat cat bankers to help clean up the mess caused by their greed instead of returning to bonuses as usual.   “The G20 is already clamping down on tax havens but it must ensure the benefits are not restricted to countries that have the power to call these states to account.   “G20 finance ministers should ensure that it is the poorest people in the world that benefit most from the IMF’s distribution of special drawing rights.   “G20 Finance Ministers have a real opportunity to ensure that poor countries receive proper protection from a crisis they did nothing to cause. Millions more families are being forced to make impossible choices between buying life saving medicines, sending their girls to school or buying food for their next meal,” Lawson said.   The G20 in April promised to provide $240bn to help developing countries deal with the financial crisis – including $50bn for the poorest. Much more is needed to reduce poverty, increase the number of children who attend school and tackle health problems such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.   How the three proposals would work:   Implement a Currency Transaction Tax (CTT) of at least 0.005% on international currency transactions. It is estimated that such a tax could generate a minimum of $30 billion per year if applied to the four major international reserve currencies (US Dollar, Yen, Euro and British Pound). If more currencies were included, this figure could increase as high as $50bn. A slightly higher rate could also provide more resources for government spending in rich countries facing cuts in services.   Transfer half of rich countries’ new Special Drawing Rights allocations. Agree that at a minimum all the G8 and other major donor countries will transfer half of their allotted new allocations of IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to Low Income Countries. SDRs are a form of IMF quasi currency distributed to member countries. The April G20 agreed to create $285 billion worth of SDRs, and rich nations will receive $177 billion of this amount. Oxfam is calling for half of this, $89 billion, to be transferred to the poorest countries.   Deal with tax havens. Put in place a multilateral agreement for the automatic exchange of full tax information and require country-by-country reporting of subsidiaries, sales and profits by multinational corporations, to help developing countries recoup lost tax revenue. This could result in a further US$160 billion for poor countries, and at the same time would enable rich countries to recover their lost tax revenues. The current OECD initiative on tax havens, supported by the G20, relies on bilateral agreements between countries. To date no developing country has signed a bilateral agreement with a tax haven.
	Brazil a leading country on the Right to Food by United Nations News Service   October 2009   Brazil is a leading country on the Right to Food, with great opportunites to do even better.   The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Professor Olivier De Schutter, is currently in Brazil for a country mission on the progressive realization of the right to food. Addressing journalists in Brasilia, he summarized his first conclusions.   “My visit in Brazil is one of the most inspiring I had. Brazil has made so much progress since 2002, yet at the same time deep challenges remain, and persistent pockets of poverty and hunger are unacceptable. Brazil sits on enormous opportunities to accelerate change for the better, if the country commits to reinforce the policies that not only boost food production, but improve the situation of the most vulnerable groups, including small farmers and the landless.”   The Special Rapporteur met with more than one hundred persons during his mission, including Ministers, representatives of food security institutions, and civil society organizations.   “Any candidate for the next presidential elections should commit to three objectives: strengthen social programmes; accelerate the support to family farming; allocate public resources to productive sustainable agricultural modes of production; and tackle land concentration through agrarian reform”, added De Schutter, knowing his report will be published in an election year. He detailed three core objectives.   “First, the Fome Zero programmes should be enshrined into laws, with adequate earmarked budget, so that they cannot easily be reversed, creating a permanent dynamic of progress and development” said Prof De Schutter, who attended an international seminar on claim mechanisms. “Claim mechanisms for those who are denied access to such programmes must be improved. Citizens have rights, the State has obligations, and fulfilling these obligations actually creates a very positive effect for a broad socio-economic development.”   Second, the Special Rapporteur observed that family farming is absolutely vital to Brazil’s economy. According to data received, family farming accounts for 70 per cent of food production in Brazil, and it creates more jobs and more value per hectare. “This is what countries need in a time of crisis. The recent law organizing the procurement of a minimum of 30 per cent of school feeding (PNAE) from assentamentos and family farming is actually one of the best levers the Brazilian government has at its disposal to realize the right to food for all”, added the Professor teaching at the University of Louvain in Belgium and Columbia University, USA. “The world is watching this programme, it can’t fail”.   “Third, Brazil should consider stepping at full speed into the best sustainable farming approaches in order to become a holistic and long-term source of inspiration for the world. Indeed, there is a huge untapped potential in innovative agroecological practices, such as agroforestry, and they could be scaled up.”, said the UN expert, who called for a nation-wide participatory assessment of the respective merits of family farming, agroecology and export-led agriculture, including monocultures and agrofuels. Prof De Schutter added that “genuine participation with family farming organizations and social movements will be vital to ensure the potential of agroecology materializes”. Prof De Schutter thanks the Brazilian government for the support in organizing the mission. He hopes to return to Brazil next year to discuss the implementation of his final recommendations, after his full report will be published.   Sept 2009   Extreme poverty: Zambia needs to move "from rhetoric to action".   "Effectively addressing extreme poverty in Zambia requires moving from rhetoric to action," said the United Nations Independent Expert on human rights and extreme poverty, Magdalena Sepulveda, at the end of her visit to the country, the first mission of a UN human rights expert to Zambia.   "Zambia is a country rich in natural resources that experienced significant economic growth in the last 8 years. Nevertheless, it was appalling to see the persistence of extreme poverty in different regions of the country," stressed the UN expert sharing some of her preliminary findings at a press conference in Lusaka.   Ms. Sepúlveda met with various Government authorities, international organizations and NGOs, and visited communities living in poverty in Chipata, Chirundu, Katete and the Zambian capital. "In my visits to communities I learnt about the daily struggle for survival by people living in extremely difficult conditions. The Government has made clear commitments and outlined important plans to change this situation, but words must be translated into more actions."   The expert, who was briefed on the ongoing review of the Constitution by the National Constitution Conference, pointed out that this process is a unique opportunity to bring the Zambian legal framework in line with international human rights commitments made by the country. "Access to health, housing, education and social security are all universal human rights that must be incorporated into the Bill of Rights," said Ms. Sepúlveda.   According to the expert, improving law is important, "but it is not sufficient". In her view, poverty will not be reduced in Zambia until poor people are placed at the center of national policies planning and if resources to social protection are not ensured. "The extremely poor must be the number one priority of the State budget," she stressed.   Ms. Sepulveda saw first-hand the impact of pilot programmes of social cash transfer in urban and rural communities, which benefit households unable to undertake any income generating activity. "Without social cash transfers, older people, women and children would be virtually abandoned to their fate," said the expert. "I was extremely pleased to hear that the Government has decided to scale-up these programmes."   The independent expert fully acknowledged the resources constraints of the Government and encouraged international donors to support social protection programmes in Zambia. Nonetheless, she also stressed that the Government still can do much more with the limited resources that it has. "Governments must closely assess the allocation of public spending and fiercely combat corruption".   The expert stressed that transparency, accountability and participation are indispensable for effective poverty reduction policies. "Civil society has a crucial role in the struggle against poverty, it should not only actively participate in the design process but also be able to monitor and evaluate what is being done."   In this sense, Ms. Sepulveda expressed concern about the impact that the recently adopted NGO Act may have in restricting the independence of NGOs and subjecting them to excessive controls. She also called for enhanced support to the Human Rights Commission and the immediate adoption of the Anti Corruption Statute and an access to information act.   As a result of this visit, the expert will prepare a report that will be presented at the UN Human Rights Council in June 2010, describing her main findings and providing recommendations on the enhancement of the human rights situation of people living in extreme poverty.   Magdalena Sepúlveda is the Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty since May 2008. She is a Chilean lawyer currently working as Research Director at the International Council on Human Rights Policy in Geneva. Visit the related web page
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