Rich country actions fail to match words at crucial poverty talks

International NGO says Sarkozy’s political statements are not backed up by the figures

As Nicolas Sarkozy today addressed a major international conference on tackling global poverty, Oxfam International welcomed his call for strengthened multilateralism in the face of the economic crisis. Sarkozy – the only rich country Head of State to have travelled to Doha to take part in the Financing for Development Conference – made the call at a moment when financial turmoil has left us in no doubt that the existing international financial institutions are in need of an urgent overhaul to cope with the new global challenges.

"The International Monetary Fund reforms of 2008 only increased the voting rights of poor countries by 2%: a drop in the ocean compared to what is now required. This conference in Doha represents a critical opportunity to radically reform the functioning of the IMF and the World Bank, and yet the agreement currently under negotiation will, at best, do little more than re-confirm existing commitments to thoroughly inadequate reform. Meanwhile, the respective presidents of the IMF and World Bank – Mr. Strauss-Kahn and Mr. Zoellick – are notable only by their absence," said Ariane Arpa, head of the Oxfam International delegation in Doha.

Sarkozy, speaking as the current President of the EU, appeared keen to stress that rich countries have a critical responsibility in the fight against poverty – a political statement that the figures fail to back up. "If there was a genuine political willingness not to sacrifice development on the altar of fending off the financial crisis – a crisis which will drag 40 million people into poverty in 2009 – the figures for the amount of money given by rich countries in aid would reflect it," said Arpa. “Instead, we have seen aid figures drop for two years in a row.”

Like the vast majority of rich countries, France’s development budget for the next three years will leave it well off target for meeting its aid commitments. Meanwhile, Italy has announced plans to slash its aid budget and Germany, despite having agreed to increase aid spending in 2009, is likely to fall short.

"To retain his credibility Nicolas Sarkozy along with his European partners, must present a clear and concrete calendar of aid increases for reaching the agreed EU aid goals," concluded Arpa.