“This pamphlet should be read by anyone considering giving their support to the Jubilee 2000 campaign to write off all loans to developing countries” – Sir Alan Walters in the Foreword to this pamphlet
1999 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the inception of development aid. At the outset, the advocates of aid hoped that the expenditure of a few million dollars over a decade or so would lead to self-sustaining growth in the underdeveloped world.
Today, billions of dollars later, the need to continue development aid is taken for granted: the Jubilee 2000 campaign is merely the most recent example of the criticism that not enough aid is being given. But, as Lord Bauer and Cranley Onslow demonstrate, debt cancellation specifically favours the incompetent and dishonest. Thus it must be resisted.
What is needed is a radical revision of the way in which aid is allocated. Instead of being linked to per capita income, aid should only be given to those governments who pursue domestic and foreign policies likely to promote economic progress and the welfare of their people.
Clare Short MP, the Secretary of State for International Development, puts forward a vigorous defence of current Government policy – yet admits that many of Lord Bauer’s arguments are both interesting and right.
