Australia’s Labor government is committed to increasing overseas aid to 0.5% of Gross National Income by 2015. Former Prime Minister, now Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd represented Julia Gillard at the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit last week. He announced how some of the extra aid will be spent:
Yesterday, I attended the special session of this Summit on the least-developed countries.
There I talked about the particular needs of the 49 least-developed countries – fifteen of which are in our own region and 33 of which lie in Africa. Our first priority must be with these people – the poorest of the poor.
As Australia's aid program doubles over the next five years, we will increase our support to those least-developed countries.
Today I am committing Australia to working towards providing 0.15 per cent of our Gross National Income in aid to the least-developed countries, in line with international targets.
Statement to the High-level Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (Millennium Development Goals Summit)
The news was welcomed by Oxfam Australia:
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s promise to target more aid to the world’s least developed countries will mean more of Australia’s aid is going where it’s needed most, international aid agency Oxfam Australia said today.
Oxfam Australia Executive Director Andrew Hewett said Mr Rudd’s promise to provide 0.15 per cent of Australia’s gross national income to least developed countries, made at a UN summit in New York, was welcome.
Kevin Rudd’s commitment means more of Australia’s aid will help the world’s poorest: Oxfam
Kevin Rudd's speech at the launch of the Global Strategy on Women's and Children's Health:
Kevin Rudd spelled out some of the detail in a media release:
'Over 350,000 women and girls die each year from largely preventable complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. And each year over 8 million children die, including 3.5 million newborn babies.
'The progress has not been good enough for women in countries like PNG, who are 80 times more likely to die in childbirth or pregnancy than an Australian woman,' said Mr Rudd.
As part of this enhanced support, Mr Rudd announced a program of $140 million over five years to improve maternal and child health in eastern Africa. This will focus initially on Ethiopia, Tanzania and Southern Sudan, and build on long standing support provided to the Addis Ababa Hamlin Fistula Hospital and to UNICEF's Children and AIDS Initiative in Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique.
Australian aid saving the lives of more women and children
This sort of good news doesn’t grab the headlines but it is the stuff that really counts.
There is more Australian coverage of the MDGs and Australian overseas aid issues at theangle.org