According to a new Government Spending Watch data,poor countries are cutting back spending on agriculture and health. Despiteefforts of these countries to overcome the global economic crisis by increasing their own revenue-raising efforts,fears about rising debt, combined with recent aid cuts mean they are now cutting back. The report said, poor countries’ lost $140bn in revenues due to the crisis. Between 2008-2013, 40% of their extra spending has been funded by borrowing. Matthew Martin, Director of DFI, said:“Without higher aid flows, countries are being forced to choose between sharply increasing debt burdens or sacrificing spending on food, hospitals and schools.” Phil Bloomer, Oxfam Campaigns and Policy Director said, “Rising debt and falling aid are forcing poor countries to cut support to the poorest at a time when they need additional protection from climate change and rising food prices.”

Reductions to agriculture spending willworsen an already terrible situation.Very low levels of investment in agriculture means, 1 in 8 of the world’s people will go hungry. Countries’ spending on agriculture is measured to spend at least 10% of national budgets on agriculture. Only 19% of countries are meeting this target. Education expenditure is measured to allocate 20% of national budgets to the sector. Only 24% of countries are meeting this target. Health spending was measured against the WHO target of $30-40 per capita, 37% of countries are meeting this. Only 3% are meeting the target to allocate 15% of spending to health. The ILO estimates that governments need to spend at least 2.9% of GDP on social protection to provide even basic safety nets. No country is close to meeting that target. The international community has not been delivering on its promises to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

***

Tidbits:

“What-will-it-take-to-end-poverty?” It will take courageous politicians who actually implement the policies we already know are needed. But, politicians, even the well-intentioned ones, are too often unable to implement good policies, because bad policies are needed for their political survival. Vote-buying, during elections is widespread in many developing countries. New research provides direct experiential evidence that where vote-buying practices are more prevalent, governments invest less in pro-poor services. The question is,when do well-intentioned politicians prevail, and rise through the ranks? How are good citizens, who see purpose in public service, encouraged to become leaders, thereby raising the quality of politicians and of politics?