Development aid scheme for review

Press, 20 October 1987, Page 18

Development aid scheme for review

Political reporter New Zealand’s development aid programme will be reviewed by Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee. The committee’s chairman, Mr Jim Anderton, told the World Peace Council conference in Auckland at the week-end that all aspects of the development aid programme would be examined. The committee would look at the type and quality of aid, why it was provided, and how effectively it was delivered. “New Zealand can take

no pride in the fact that over the past decade overseas development assistance has fallen steadily to about 0.3 per cent of gross national product,” Mr Anderton said. “That is far short of the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent, and that 0.7 per cent is also Labour’s target. “The Government is committed to this objective and, as an intermediate measure, has set an interim target of the equivalent of 0.51 per cent of G.N.P. by 199091,” he said. That would bring New

Zealand back to the level achieved under the third Labour Government (1972-75). Development assistance would be directed specifically to carefully monitored projects that would enhance development among the poor and rural dwellers of recipient countries. Assistance to the Pacific would be of particular interest to the committee’s review but it would also be looking at multilateral aid, such as that given by the United Nations. “In these inflationary times, levels of assistance are of major concern,” Mr Anderton said.