Standing up against poverty

from Malta Today

Clayton Mercieca and Angie Farrugia are two social workers currently promoting one of the least talked about issues on the world stage. Development policy is certainly almost non-existent on the political agenda, although at governmental level, a draft for Malta’s development policy on international aid is yet to be crystallised. In the meantime, the Malta NGDO (non-government development organisations) platform strives to bring development issue to the fore of political agendas.

“It’s an issue related to of human development, and taking into account those factors, such as human rights, environment, poverty, economic development, which affect human beings in other less developed parts of the world and future generations. Malta too has a role to play in the human development of developing and poorer countries,” Clayton and Angie say.

The Platform was founded on 26 June 2001, on the initiative of Kopin (Koperazzjoni Internazzjonali - Malta), and now has 10 members, amongst them the Integra Foundation, the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice and the Jesuit Refugee Service, Kare4Kenya, Koperattive Kummerc Gust, Moviment Graffitti, Share Foundation and the Third World Group.

“We do represent the face of ‘development’ in Malta, and recognised officially by the Maltese foreign ministry,” Clayton says. “As a platform we coordinate work between the various voluntary and non-governmental organisations working in international development and humanitarian aid. As the coordinating force, we aim to improve Malta’s contribution to international development by promoting the exchange of experience, ideas and information amongst its members, between networks of NGOs in Malta and internationally, with the Maltese government, and between its members and other Maltese bodies with an interest in international development and humanitarian aid.”

To this end, the platform has also engaged with government on its draft of the National Development Policy, a novel document for Malta whose international development aims have so far been limited. Angie says one of the aims of today’s conference is to implement the government’s development policy. “We will present our development manifesto and see which party’s manifesto is the most development friendly.”

Today, thousands all over the world will be standing up for a minute at the same time to emphasis the importance in eliminating human rights violation and extreme poverty. The platform is inviting the public to participate in a Stand Up by standing up, as a group, for one minute. The outcome will be demonstrated during the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) conference held today at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, in Valletta, between 9am and 4pm.

“The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty has been observed every year since 1993, when the UN General Assembly designated this day to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries, particularly in developing countries. At the Millennium Summit world leaders committed themselves to cutting by half, by the year 2015, the number of people living in extreme poverty – people whose income is less than one dollar a day,” Clayton says.

The theme for this year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is “Working together out of poverty”. This day will highlight the need for a truly global anti-poverty alliance, one in which both developed and developing countries work together to end poverty.

“Part of our role is in fact to raise awareness about these development issues. People must not forget about other countries just because things in Malta are good or are better than the situation in other countries,” Angie says. “In Malta we might no be able to imagine situations such as human rights breaches and extreme poverty over here. We want to try and sensitise people to these realities abroad. Naturally, once we become more aware of these issues, it will be normal to support development policies advocated by government and also private enterprise such as buying fair trade goods.”

“Until now, political parties have not really shown much interest in development policy,” Clayton says. “Whereas European governments and political parties find international development policies to be particular vote-catchers for certain parts of their electorate. In contrast, Maltese politics seems to take the opposite course. Development might actually be a vote-loser. And that is part of our job, to create awareness of these issues.”

As a founder-member of the pan-European NGDO confederation CONCORD, the Maltese Platform has a key role in advocating on European Union development policy. The platform for example has taken to task the Maltese government’s statements on development aid, especially with placing an obligation for aid to developing countries on condition that migrants in Malta are repatriated or resettled. According to the European Commission’s April 2007 figures, Malta spent €7 million or 0.15 per cent of GNI on ODA in 2006 – less than what it contributed in 2004, when it spent 0.18 per cent in ODA. The figure was then inflated by over 40 per cent, according to claims by Concord, which claims Maltese aid has actually been decreasing proportionally since 2004, and is still inflated. To this day, Malta does not have an official development policy, meaning that the government is operating without clear priorities.

“Malta is committed as an EU member to give development aid to developing countries, and we try to campaign for a transparent way of making these grants and aid accountable and achieve their desired end, rather than being just a statistical entry in the government’s books,” Angie says. “We also promote fair trade goods whose consumption actually aids developing countries in investing in better schools, and dissuade people from buying goods from companies which make use of child labour.”
Clayton chips say that Malta is part of a globalised world which cannot escape those brand names which might also make use of child labour. “Watch out for these companies’ code of ethics which are available on their websites.”