Voluntary aid hopes fade

Press, 18 November 1982, Page 30

Voluntary aid hopes fade

PA Wellington Voluntary overseas aid agencies’ hopes of more Government financial support were dashed on Monday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Cooper. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Overseas Development Committee, Mr Cooper said that he was not , convinced that voluntary agencies were making full use of the non-Government support available to them. This year the Government will give $540,000 to volun-

tary agencies such as Save the Children Fund, Trade Aid, and Volunteer Service Abroad. . Voluntary agencies have been lobbying for an increase in this amount, saying that voluntary aid was more effective in some situations than Government-to-Gover-ment aid. The Government ran programmes similar to voluntary programmes in the South Pacific, he said. “However, unlike voluntary agencies, the Government also has the adminis-

trative resources and official access to work with a recipient government to improve the economic structure of a country and to thereby allow its people the scope to achieve their aims and aspirations more readily.” In the long run, Government aid was most likely to move a recipient country on the path of self-reliance, Mr Cooper said. “Assistance from voluntary agencies is better suited to alleviating immediate problems.”