September 29, 2006 Source: :
http://www.nipissingu.ca/news/view.asp?ID=20060814 Stephen Lewis speaks at Nipissing University Canada failing in foreign aid, HIV-AIDS activist says By Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles
The Nugget If countries like Canada kept their commitment to increase foreign aid, it would have a "massive" effect in some of the world's poorest places. Stephen Lewis, who has spent three decades fighting HIV-AIDS, said such a commitment would "cut poverty in half." "You would certainly reduce the infant mortality rates and the maternal mortality rates dramatically. You would probably be able to turn back the pandemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. You would get every single child that should be in primary school who is of primary school age into school and you would do a great deal about stabilizing the environment," the UN Special Envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa said during a trip to North Bay, Thursday. After 36 years, Lewis finds it frustrating and disappointing that Canada is nowhere near meeting its goal. Canada presently commits 0.25 to 0.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to foreign aid. That’s $2 billion to $2.5 billion. But its target is 0.7 per cent, or nearly $7 billion. Lewis spoke to more than 1,200 people at Nipissing University and is scheduled to address delegates at this weekend¹s Rotary conference at Clarion Resort Pinewood Park. Lewis will also attend a fundraising breakfast today at North Bay Mayor Vic Fedeli’s home. Money raised will be donated to the AIDS Committee of North Bay and Area. Lewis didn’t hold back his criticism about how he thinks the present government is doing in reaching its target, made in the 60s when Lester Pearson was external affairs minister. "Canada has done very, very poorly," he said. "We’re not even at the average . . . and we have refused to provide a timetable to achieve the famous 0.7 Gross National Product. The French said they will achieve it in 2012, the British say by 2013, the Germans and
Italians by 2015 . . . Canada is the only member of the G8 that has endorsed the 0.7 target, but refuses to set a timetable to reach it and as a result other countries look at us as hypocrites." Lewis said he expects the Conservatives will decrease foreign aid spending. "However, relative to what we should be doing or what other countries are doing we’re falling behind, except for the United States and Japan, which have traditionally been very low in their percentage of foreign aid and they have never endorsed the target, so I can’t hold them to the same standard." Since the target was announced, only Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have met and exceeded it. Canada’s national debt is no excuse for its failure to keep its commitment, said Lewis. "There is no suggestion that Canada is serious about reaching the target. We are in the best debt ratio position of any Western country at the moment. "Now that the government decided this week to pay $12 billion or $13 billion down on the overall debt, our debt ratio is better than any other G8 country, so how come they can reach the 0.7? How come the nordic countries can reach the 0.7 and we can’t?" Lewis said the problem isn’t a matter of internal financing, but one of political will. He said the only way to change the government¹s thinking is to "simply keep hammering away at them. "There’s no reason in the world (not to meet that target), there’s no other government in the G8 that has run success surpluses year-after-year for the last four years," Lewis said. "We can amortize it over time. We don’t have to meet it tomorrow, we can meet it by 2015, but we have to set a timetable in place and we refuse to do that." The Rotary Clubs of Nipissing and North Bay, the Canadian Club and Nipissing University partnered to bring Lewis to the city. Lewis received the Companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honour for lifetime achievement and was named by Maclean’s Canadian of the Year in 2003. Last year he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Source: The North Bay Nugget
www.nugget.ca
| 