Читать книгу Global Issues - Kristen A. Hite - Страница 21

It’s one thing to have development plans; it’s another thing to make it happen. Planning and building a more sustainable world is not cheap or easy. The United Nations has set an aid target for the rich countries to contribute 0.7 percent of their wealth (as determined by their GNP) towards official development assistance (“ODA”) for developing countries. As of 2017, US $135 billion flowed through official development assistance channels.

Foreign aid is used regularly to help donor nations achieve their political objectives and can include military aid as well as economic assistance. Development assistance is usually given with the objective of helping a nation develop, often in exchange for the recipient country making changes or promises to use the money a certain way. More than two thirds of ODA ($98 billion in 2016) flows bilaterally, that is from a specific donor country directly to a specific recipient country. The remaining tens of billions flow multilaterally through international institutions and funds that help channel money for specific development purposes.

Multilateral institutions that control the biggest flows of development finance include the World Bank and regional public financial institutions such as the Asian, African, and Inter‐American Development Banks. The Global Environment Facility, established during the 1922 Rio Earth Summit and headquartered at the World Bank, helps administer development assistance to support the environment. UN institutions such as the United Nations Development Programme also have specific rules for administering development projects across the world. More specialized funds, such as the Green Climate Fund and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, help channel funding flows in support of specific issues like fighting infectious diseases and climate change.

Curiously, even though the overall development model has moved past the focus on national incomes, the “developed” and “developing” country divide continues to be officially based on average per capita incomes. As of 2018, some 150 countries were considered “developing countries” (the vast majority of countries in the world) based on per capita incomes below US $12,276.¹⁴ Note that climate finance is seen as separate and additional to official development aid, as politically countries view climate finance as obligatory payments by wealthy historic emitters for the costs of coping with climate impacts caused by their emissions. Adding to the already complicated picture of development assistance, some island nations have been deemed ineligible due to inequality: one or two billionaires on a small island can raise the average GDP beyond the average income threshold, even though many countries on the list had not yet met the Millennium Development Goals.¹⁵

Speaking of billionaires, while it is primarily countries who command the billions for official development assistance, private actors and philanthropy are increasingly significant players. Perhaps most substantial is “The Giving Pledge,” a most unusual effort by two American billionaires – Bill Gates and Warren Buffett – to get other billionaires around the world to give at least half of their wealth to charities, as they are doing.¹⁶ As of 2018, 187 billionaires from 22 countries had signed the pledge.¹⁷ While many are private about their total net worth, by one report, estimates are that the Giving Pledge reflects a total giving commitment of at least US $600 billion.¹⁸

While private philanthropists have great latitude in how they spend their money, countries have carefully negotiated a set of rules and processes for official development assistance. For example, countries track relevant funds against sustainability markers (“Rio markers” as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. The Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (“OECD”) evaluates all official development aid based on its efforts to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.¹⁹ It also evaluates how much additional private funding gets leveraged from the spending of official development aid, finding in 2018 that 77 percent of all leveraged private funding went to middle income countries, and not to those most in need. ²⁰

Part of this also involves making sure funds are both programmed and spent effectively, a concern in many countries. In 2014, a report by the ONE Campaign estimated that corruption deprived countries’ economies of 1 trillion dollars (that’s $1,000,000,000,000).²¹ To give perspective, this sum would be enough to provide about 165 million vaccines or educate 10 million children per year.²²