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GERMANY: New Govt May Neglect Development Aid
By Julio Godoy
BERLIN, Oct 29 (IPS) - Concerns have risen with the inauguration of the new government that Germany
will cut back on its commitments on international development.
Misgivings have arisen over the appointment of Dirk Niebel from the Free
Democratic Party (FDP) as the minister for economic cooperation and
development.
He said earlier this year that the ministry should be dissolved and merged
with the foreign office. On another occasion Niebel, a former bureaucrat and
soldier for eight years, said the 100 million euros Germany allocated as
emergency aid for underdeveloped countries would be better spent on
getting teachers for German schools.
Niebel clarified after taking over as minister that he would not dissolve the
ministry. "I am going to be an apprentice in office," he said.
But concerns have not gone away, primarily because of declared FDP policy. In
its 2009 "liberal savings book", a policy document, the party has asked for a
cut of 531 million euros from the international development budget, about a
10 percent cut.
Sascha Raabe, international cooperation expert with the opposition Social
Democratic Party, called Niebel the "minister for liquidation", a play on words
in German where 'development' (entwicklung) sounds similar to 'liquidation'
(abwicklung). "Niebel is a miscast," Raabe added.
Claudia Warning, president of the German federation of non-governmental
organisations (VENRO) that are active in development cooperation, urged the
FDP to "coherently lead (the foreign and the international cooperation
ministries) based on the principle of fighting poverty" in the poorest countries
of the world.
"This should be a guiding principle also for the foreign ministry," Warning
said. Guido Westerwelle, FDP leader, is the new German foreign minister.
Warning said the new government programme puts too much emphasis on
"promoting German economic interests abroad, even in decisions concerning
economic cooperation." The ministry's task must be to "contribute to the
international fight against poverty, and not the promotion of German
businesses' interests," Warning told IPS.
Warning also said she was missing "ambition" in the new government's
programmes in international cooperation. "The government simply does not
refer to all international agreements and time frameworks Germany ratified in
the past, of increasing its official development aid."
VENRO represents 120 NGOs active in international cooperation and in
promoting humanitarian aid.
Raabe pointed out that the new government plan "does not make any
reference to the original time framework to fulfil the pledges Germany
recently ratified concerning international development cooperation."
Raabe and Warning were referring to two international agreements, in which
Germany pledged to raise official development aid to 0.51 percent of the
country's gross domestic product by the year 2010, and to 0.7 percent by
2015.
"By so doing, Germany says farewell to the international community's
concrete objectives of increasing development aid within the short and
medium term," Raabe added. "Given the growing poverty in the less
developed countries of the world, this is a catastrophic decision."
Raabe also criticised a policy statement by the new coalition government,
which calls for further liberalisation of markets in developing countries. "Such
a call is a step backwards to the radical market liberalism of the 1990s, which
are responsible for hunger and poverty and destruction of agriculture in many
developing countries."
Small farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America cannot compete against the
highly subsidised agricultural goods from Europe and the U.S., Raabe added.
(END/2009)
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