We Ain't Too Generous!

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, lead author of U.N. Millennium Project’s report re: investing in development says that “the present system is not working…there’s a tremendous imbalance of focus on the issues of war and peace, and less on the dying and suffering of the poor who have no voice.” According to the report, one billion people live on a dollar a day or less; life expectancy in the poorest countries is half that in high-income countries. And every month 150,000 Affican children die of malaria because they do no not have bed nets to keep out mosquitoes, a tragedy Sachs called the “silent tsunami.”

The world’s nations agreed to provide 0.7% of their gross national income for development assistance. Only 5 countries have met or surpassed the target (Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden). Six others have made commitments to reach the target by 2015 (Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Spain and Great Britain).

Eleven of the 22 richest donor nations are far from the target and have not even set timetables to reach it – included in this number are the United States, Japan, and Germany.

The United States now spends only about 0.15% of its gross domestic product on development aid, well below the 0.7% it agreed to. See the entire UN Millenium Report for more information.

Action: Write to President and Congressional Representatives requesting that they keep the promise of providing at least .7% of our gross national product for development assistance. See Bread for the World for a sample letter.