Editorial

The reduction of global poverty has been pushed a couple of notches higher on the developed world's agenda in recent months. G8 leaders will be meeting for their annual summit in Scotland next week with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who holds the G8 presidency, promising to focus on the challenges of Africa. The foreign ministers of the leading industrialised countries have already agreed to cancel 100 per cent of the 18 poorest nations' €33 billion debt.

Meanwhile, European Union countries have agreed to boost their official development aid to €90 billion by 2015 - 0.7 per cent of their GNI and practically double their current rate of €46 billion. This commitment was made partly to help implement the UN's Millennium Development Goals. The UN's aim is to pull 500 million people out of poverty, feed the world's hungriest 250 million and save the lives of 30 million children over the next 10 years.

In this scenario, Malta has not exempted itself from its moral obligations. Under the EU plan, it has voluntarily joined the other nine Union newcomers in pledging to set aside 0.33 per cent of its GNI by 2013. Going by present figures, that amounts to about Lm6 million. The government is also planning to issue its first overseas development policy by the end of the year.

All this represents an important watershed in the country's evolution. Having joined one of the richest clubs in the world, the government can no longer be solely occupied with how much funds it can get but must also think in terms of giving too. Malta is no longer merely a recipient of aid but an official donor now, in consonance with the relatively advanced stage of its economic growth.

We have long been dependent on hand-outs from more developed nations and will continue to receive plenty of much-needed financial assistance thanks to the EU value of solidarity. Indeed, the few million liri we have promised to make available in overseas aid are a pittance next to the amounts we expect to receive at least up to 2013.

We tend to take great pride in our generosity. Our response to the tsunami disaster, both on a government and individual level, had been hailed by Foreign Minister Michael Frendo as one of the largest in the world on a per capita basis.

Still, the prospect of having to donate about Lm60 per average household to starving Africans from our taxes by 2010 will be unpalatable to some. This money could be put to better use in charitable efforts at home, some will argue, forgetting how much we already donate to the missions and similar causes every year.

Dr Frendo was right to point out last week that the recipient-donor transition would need to be understood by the people. An EU-wide survey found recently that only four per cent of the Maltese knew of the Millennium Development Goals, the lowest level of awareness in Europe. A quarter think the government is already allocating enough money to help development in poor countries - despite the fact that local figures don't even exist for such aid!

The Maltese must be asked to look beyond the numbers and picture a child's face learning in school for the first time in her life; a woman's face when she is given medicine to fight the diseases that ravage her family and the faces of a family when bread is finally put on their table.

Let's continue to be true to our values.