Reasons to be cheerful
UK aid and development agency Oxfam has published a good news top 10 for 2008 –
reminding its activist supporters that global development is underway.
reminding its activist supporters that global development is underway.
- In 2007, the number of children out of school fell to 72 million, down from 76 million the year before and 120 million in 2000.
- 2007 saw the fourth year of consistent growth in sub-Saharan Africa of over 5%, and infl ation of less than 10%. Per capita growth has lagged behind, but is still consistently above 4% a year.
- Overall growth in developing countries and emerging markets was 8.1%.
- Debt cancellation agreed at the Gleneagles G8 summit is translating into greater poverty spending across the world. Since 1999, poor countries receiving debt cancellation have more than doubled the amount they spend on fighting poverty.
- The Global Fund to Fight HIV and AIDS, TB and Malaria, set up at the Japanese G8 in 2000, has now distributed $8.6 billion in grants to 136 countries. It has got 1.1 million people on treatment for HIV and AIDS.
- In Malawi over 130,000 people with HIV and AIDS now get treatment, up from virtually none five years ago, thanks to the Global Fund.
- The Global Fund has also distributed 30 million insecticide treated bed nets. These alone can save 210,000 children’s lives.
- In 2007 the number of children dying before the age of five fell below 10 million for the first time (to 9.7 million), down from 11 million three years ago.
- In the UK, the government set a timetable to steadily increase its aid to 0.7% of gross national income, putting it on course to be a bigger donor than the US by 2010, and in Germany the government agreed to increase aid by €750 million in 2008.
- In India, the government has increased the health budget by 33%.