Beginnings Issue 12.pub - Planning Institute of Jamaica

P a g e 13 I s s u e 12
Trade
The United Nations estimates that unfair trade rules deny
poor countries $700 billion every year. Less than 0.01 per
cent of this could save the sight of 30 million people.
(Source: ChristianAid)
International trade is worth $10 million a minute. 70 per cent
of this is controlled by multinational corporations. (Source:
ChristianAid)
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that in our world today:
on aid. If the UK met the 0.7 per cent target by 2008, an extra 1.5
million people could beat poverty that year. (Source: Save The
Children)
To achieve 0.7 per cent, the UK needs to increase its aid budget by £3
billion. It sounds huge, but it is possible - the UK government found
£5.5 billion to fund the 'war on terror'. (Source: Guardian)
Rich Country Aid Commitments: The good the bad and the ugly
The poorest 49 countries make up 10 per cent of the world's
population but account for only 0.4 per cent of world trade.
Their share has halved since 1980. (Source: ChristianAid)
World trade robs poor countries of £1.3 billion a day - 14
times what they get in aid. (Source: CAFOD, 2003)
The prices of many poor countries' key exports are at a 150-
year low. (Source: ChristianAid)
It is estimated that rich countries are gaining $141.8 billion
per year in trade and Africa is $2.6 billion per year worse off.
(Source: ChristianAid)
Rich countries spend $100 billion a year to protect their
markets with tariffs, quotas and subsidies - this is twice as
much as they provide in aid for developing countries.
(Source: Oxfam)
Current trade rules force Mexican farmers who live on a
dollar a day to compete with American farmers receiving
subsidies of more than US$20,000 a year. (Source:
ChristianAid)
The average cow in the EU receives more than $2 a day in
subsidies, whilst more than 3 billion people in developing
countries are struggling to survive on less than this. (Source:
Cafod)
The EU gives $86.8 billion a year to its farmers in subsidies.
Just $5 billion could help give everyone in the world access to
safe water and sanitation. (Source)
On average, coffee farmers are getting $1 a kilogram while
consumers are paying about $15 - a mark up of 1500 per
cent. (Source: Oxfam)
Aid
In 1970, 22 of the world's richest countries pledged to spend
0.7 per cent of their national income on aid. Thirty-four years
later, only 5 countries have kept that promise. The UK hasn't.
(Source: Save The Children)
In 2002/3 the UK spent just 0.3 per cent of national income
Debt
Seven Million children die each year as a result of the debt crisis.
(Source: DC, 2001)
For every £1 in grant aid to developing countries, more than £13
comes back in debt repayments. (Source: World Health Report 2000)
Every year Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region of the world,
spends $14.5 billion repaying debts to the world's rich countries and
international institutions such as the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund. (Source: DATA)
If we are to reach the Millennium Development Goal of halving the
number of people living on less than one dollar a day by 2015, we
must cancel all the debts of the poorest countries. (Source: Jubilee
Debt Campaign)
More than 85 per cent of the debt owed by the world's poorest
countries has yet to be cancelled. (Source: Cafod)
Debt cancellation needed by the world's poor: US$300bn. Debt relief
promised by creditors so far: US$110bn. Debt cancellation delivered
by July 2003: US$36bn. (Source: Cafod)
Spread over ten years the cost to the UK taxpayer of cancelling
£1.3bn debt is £171m a year or £2.85 per UK citizen per year - the
price of a pint. (Source: WDM)
Spread over 20 years, the cost of cancelling the debts of the 52 Jubilee
2000 countries is only one penny a day for each person in the
industrialised world. (Source: World Centric)
Ethiopia, a country with one of the highest mortality rates in the
world, the $197m spent on servicing the national debt in 2001 could
have fully financed provision of a basic package of health care for
mothers and children. (Source: Oxfam)
The money spent on debt repayments could provide water for around
1.3 billion people. (Source: WaterAid)
All information sourced from:
http://www.millenniumcampaign.org/site/pp.asp?c=grKVL2NLE&