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Contributions from
the Column
Facts and trends
OECD extends development assistance criteria
Lack of direction in the face of increasing poverty
The many voices of German education co-operation
“Decent work instead of exploitation” for children
US Senate investigates World Bank corruption
Development assistance rising
KfW development bank debate on fighting poverty
New dynamism for the WTO
6/2004
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KfW development bank debate on fighting poverty
Ruth Jacoby does not share the widespread scepticism about the chances of achieving Millennium Development Goals. The Director General for Development Cooperation at the Ministry of Swedish Foreign Affairs considers the aim of halving poverty by 2015 as anything but ambitious. After all, some people would still be starving. Michael Hofman of the German Ministry of Development shares her optimism. Nonetheless, both concede that up to now it has been mainly China and India, the two countries with over a billion inhabitants, that have been reporting success stories thanks to their meteoric economic growth rates. In the official view, however, the essential issue is that the starving receive help, wherever they may be.
Other participants at the “Expert Discussion on Globalisation” hosted by the KfW development bank in Berlin in May saw the situation in a much more negative light. Peter Henriot, an American political scientist and Jesuit priest in Zambia, was one of them. He demanded a policy of fair trade and warned against allowing structural adjustment pressures to outweigh social factors, as had happened Zambia. Rolf Koppe, the bishop of Lower Saxony and responsible for the overseas mission work of the Protestant Church of Germany, pointed out the lack of quantifiable successes in both education and health policy. Dirk Messner, head of the German Development Institute, drew attention to the sceptical prognoses on eradicating poverty made by the World Bank and UNDP, who predict that 60 developing countries will fail to achieve their millennium goals. Even worse, in a reversal of recent trends, the Human Development Index has actually gone backwards in 40 of the countries affected.
Johannes Wendt
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