UK seeking to meet Millennium Development Goals

The BBC reports the UK is to stop direct aid to 16 countries, including Russia, China and Iraq. But, overall, the international development budget will rise by a third in this parliament, it says, and spending would be a "good deal better focused".

Resources will be concentrated on the 27 countries that account for three-quarters of the world's maternal mortality and malaria deaths, such as Ghana and Afghanistan. By 2014, 30% of UK aid is expected to go to war-torn and unstable countries.

India is currently one of the biggest recipients of UK development aid, and there have been media campaigns in the UK suggesting an economy growing at nearly 10% a year simply does not need British assistance. But others point out that nearly half a billion people in India are still desperately poor, and efforts to reduce global poverty will not progress without significant aid.

A Call for Social Justice

The United Nations, which marked a "World Day of Social Justice" on Sunday is calling for a "new era" in which all the people of the world have access to basic services and "decently" paying jobs.

According to the U.N., 80 percent of the world’s people lack “adequate social protection.”

To eliminate the problem, the U.N. is trying to establish what it calls a global "social protection floor." Such a “floor” would guarantee food security, health services for all, and old-age pensions for the 80 percent of the world’s people believed to lack such protections.

In his message urging “social justice for all,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “No one should live below a certain income level, and everyone should have access to essential public services such as water and sanitation, health and education.”

Juan Somavia, the U.N.’s International Labour Organization (ILO) director-general, said the recent protests in the Middle East show the linkage between social justice and national stability. “What happens in the future will very much depend on whether the connections are recognized and acted upon.”

Involve Your Kids in Charitable Giving

The habits of future charity givers depend on what they see their parents and grandparents give.

Northwestern Mutual Senior Vice President Meridee Maynard has some helpful pointers that can get families pointed in a more altruistic direction.

• Involve kids in conversations about your charitable giving.

• Develop giving goals as a family.

• Choose a charity to financially support as a family. Model—and explain—how the family will budget to meet that giving goal.

• Show kids that money isn’t just for spending. Use a four-bank system for saving, spending, investing and giving.

• Encourage kids to develop realistic personal giving goals to support a cause they believe in.

• Explain to teens the concept of tax benefits related to charitable contributions.

If kids see, talk and hear about their parents’ charitable giving, they'll be more likely to follow suit. If they remain in the dark, the spigot can tragically run dry when those kids grow up.

—Brian O'Connell, thestreet.com

US lawmaker: International Aid recipients face sacrifices

Countries that get US aid, such as Pakistan, will have to shoulder more of the burden for their own growth as Washington eyes deep cuts in overseas assistance, a top US lawmaker warns. ”Greater sacrifice by aid recipients is required to sustain the generosity of the American people," said Representative Nita Lowey, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Subcommittee that manages US aid flows.

"For example, Pakistan, which receives $1.5 billion per year in civilian aid alone, has one of the lowest effective tax rates in the world. Fewer than 3 million of the 175 million Pakistanis pay any taxes, and tax evasion is particularly high among the wealthy, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace," said Lowey.

Her message echoed US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call in September 2010 for the US ally to increase taxes on its wealthiest earners. "It's one of my pet peeves: Countries that will not tax their elite, who expect us to come in and help them serve their people, are just not going to get the kind of help from us that historically they may have," said Clinton.

[AFP]