Poverty still grips Pacific

from The Australian

A new AusAID report tracks neighboring countries to Australia, on their progress in meeting Millennium Development Goals

by Siobhain Ryan

A new AusAID report measuring the Pacific's social and economic progress was released in Niue yesterday, where Kevin Rudd signed deals with Samoa and Papua New Guinea during the Pacific Islands Forum.

The Prime Minister's promise of fresh support came as AusAID revealed international aid had barely risen per capita in the past decade.

"The impact of aid on poverty reduction and sustainable development in the region is unclear, as is the impact on individual country capacity," the report stated. "What is clear is that the increased number of donors and activities over the last decade is making co-ordination more difficult."

Australia provides just over half the development assistance being offered and will spend $1billion on the region in 2008-09.

But money spent on technical assistance, such as policy advice and budget management, had achieved only mixed results and the good outcomes from direct service provision ended when project funding did, AusAID noted.

Australia's major donor status could be under challenge, as China is estimated to provide as much as a third of aid funding to the region. University of NSW senior lecturer Karin von Strokirch, who publishes on the Pacific region, said China's aid was driven by more than altruistic motives.

"China has two objectives in the Pacific: one is diplomatic recognition and keeping Taiwan out of the picture; the other is to have access to natural resources, particularly fisheries," she said.

"To get influence in those two areas, the Chinese have been giving aid without accountability."

The AusAID report highlights, however, how much extra help is still needed in the Pacific.

Extreme poverty has increased markedly over the past decade, despite this year's forecast pick-up in growth to 4.8 per cent.

At least three million people live on less than $US1 ($1.15) a day, up to a million children do not attend school and 18,000 children die each year mostly from preventable causes.

Many of the 16 nations tracked in the inaugural annual progress report will not achieve their 2015 Millennium Development Goals, which were adopted in 2000 by the UN General Assembly.

Dr von Strokirch said some of the region's most populous countries were in the biggest trouble, disguising the fact several others were on the improve.

"A lot of the worst statistics are from two countries: that's obviously PNG and the Solomon Islands," she said. "That's going to drag the whole region down."

In Papua New Guinea, for instance, only 54 per cent of children complete primary school, 61 per cent of the population lacks access to improved water sources and child mortality rates are the region's highest.

One fifth of Solomon Islanders are malnourished and East Timorese are poorer than before they gained independence in 2002.

Dr von Strokirch said some of the Melanesian countries were too reliant on local mining and forestry projects, which channelled cash income offshore and returned few benefits to the broader economy.

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