France pushes aid to poor at UN, but record tells a different story

An impassioned French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday pledged to boost aid to the world's poorest by 20% over the next three years and issued a plea for other developed nations to join him in meeting UN anti-poverty targets by 2015.

Sarkozy called on world leaders not to ignore global poverty as the world economy continues to recover from a severe economic downturn. “We have no right to do less than what we have decided to do,'' Sarkozy told assembled leaders at the UN in New York.

Sarkozy calls for tax on financial transactions to fund global development

The French president also said he would press for a global tax on financial transactions to fund development aid when France is president of the Group of 20 countries next year.

Some 140 heads of state are to speak at the three-day summit which will seek ways to kickstart the eight MDGs which were first launched at a UN summit in 2000. The aims include cutting the number of people in extreme poverty by half and the number of children who die before reaching age five by two thirds, as well as fairer trade and spreading the Internet to the world's poor.

But most experts say none of the aims will be reached by the target date of 2015 and France is hardly leading the pack.

France: mission unaccomplished

In 2005, those countries that signed the MDGs committed to give aid equivalent to 0.51% of their gross national product (GNP) by 2010. But figures released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) suggest France has been found wanting -- according to its analysis the country’s contribution last year was 0.47%.

The MDGs further stipulate that the figure should rise to 0.7% by 2015 -- something France is unlikely to achieve.

The Official Development Assistance (ODA) is the amount of money the OECD sets to be raised for aid to developing countries. But, some NGOs, including French aid organisation SUD, claim that ODA rules allow too much flexibility in what donor countries do with their aid money.

For instance, the first recipient to qualify for French ODA in 2008 was... Mayotte -- a French overseas territory. This was perfectly legal as “territories” qualify in the same way as sovereign nations under the OECD rules.

According to Hubert de Milly, senior policy advisor at the OECD’s working group on aid effectiveness, these rules exist because they are “the only way areas such as the Palestinian Territories can be included. Their needs are real.”

France also includes overseas scholarships -- for students wanting to study in France -- in its aid package. Following criticism by the OECD the amount spent “has been reduced”, according Hubert de Milly.

Finally, in 2009 France announced a billion euros of debt cancellation, a figure that shocked NGOs. “The fact is that many of these debts would likely never be paid off anyway,” Mr de Milly told FRANCE 24. “Clearing debts like these does nothing to help developing countries.”

Aid is lent, not given

France is also one of three countries, with Germany and Japan, that is still allowed to contribute in the form of loans and not as direct aid. So in the long term, the aid given by France does not cost the country a penny.

“The country lending the money itself borrows it to be given as aid. Nothing, in effect, leaves the lending state’s pocket,” Mr de Milly said.

This way, France has been able to provide 1.3 billion euros in aid -- some 15% of its ODA -- without having to open its wallet.

Moreover, donor countries cannot lend money to anyone -- the poorest countries have such low (or non-existent) credit ratings that they get nothing whatsoever.