ABSTRACT

No explicit progress can be observed regarding the commitment to 20:20. What priority is given to social issues is seen as an investment in future development

Belgium The current Secretary of State thinks that as a basic rule all development cooperation should aim to reduce poverty. However, Belgian Survival Fund, established in 1983 is the the only resource directly targeted on the poorest. It is seriously under-funded and under-spent

New policy stresses micro-level sectoral concentration on health, education, agriculture and ‘the social economy’ - local socio­ economic initiatives based on cooperation rather than profitseeking, such as informal savings and health insurance. 20:20 compact to be included as a condition in every bilateral agree­ ment between Belgium and a developing country

Canada The 1995 CIDA Policy on Poverty Reduction applies to all CIDA programmes. The degree to which this has been implemented is difficult to determine. Poverty profiles and reduction strategies are to be integrated into country and regional policy frameworks. All pro­ gramming is to be made consistent with the goal of poverty reduction and all non-poverty programming is to be assessed for its impact on the poor. CIDA is using a threefold classification: targeted poverty programmes working directly with the poor; poverty-focused pro­ grammes that benefit a disproportionately larger number of poor than non-poor and policy interventions that impact the environment for poverty reduction

Minister for Foreign Affairs committed Canada to 20:20 at the Copenhagen Summit and officials from CIDA participated in the Oslo follow-up meeting in 1996 and support the resulting policy statement. It has been pointed out that the agreement reached at Oslo gave the initiative to developing countries to request a 20:20 compact from a donor and, as yet, no country has made this request of Canada. However, the May 1997 CIDA policy statement on Basic Human Needs sets out suggested measures for carrying out the commitments: (a) supporting countries that wish to establish a partnership; (b) encouraging participation of government, non-government and private sector in carrying out the commitments; (c) encouraging international organisations to implement 20:20; (d) accounting for the mobilisation of resources to achieve 25% to basic human needs and in support of 20:20

Denmark Danida has placed poverty reduction firmly on the top of the Danish development cooperation agenda. In response to a request from par­ liament to pay more attention to operationalising the poverty reduction strategy, an evaluation was prepared. There is a three-legged poverty reduction approach to (a) sustainable and socially balanced economic growth; (b) development of the social sector, including the promotion of education and health services as prerequisites to the development of human resources; and (c) promoting popular partici­ pation and development of a society based on the rule of law and good governance. Is an implicit message that Danish development assistance will make every effort to contribute to poverty reduction

Denmark’s commitment to allocate 20% of ODA to basic social services has resulted in over 20% of ODA going to basic social services. Aid to social development is seen very much as an investment in the future. The evaluation of poverty reduction in Danish aid moves away from perceiving poverty as primarily about lack of income, focusing instead on inability to cater for basic needs, lack of opportunity to exploit human resources, isolation, lack of status and power and a high degree of vulnerability

Finland Poverty alleviation has been the main policy focus of government ODA since 1993 as opposed to a formal classification of direct poverty reduction. Present policy continues with this, concentrating more specifically on the status of disabled people and the participation of women in social and economic activities

Social development highlighted as means and end of poverty reduction. No decisions made on 20:20 compact or on aiming for a 20% goal; neither is mentioned in the 1996 Decision-in-Principle. According to the government’s new ODA profile, aid to social development will be increasingly emphasised, perceiving it as an investment in future development

France No formal classification, but government aims to reduce poverty. There has been no real progress towards mainstreaming poverty eradication into the overall goal of aid. A 1996 study found that poverty alleviation is not listed as a practical priority by any aid institution; it has not been incorporated into the programming or evaluation; it is not the subject of any special strategy or policy statement; it does not appear as a development concept, as the subject of statistical analysis, or as a criterion for allocating aid.