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MANILA, Philippines?The United Kingdom became the first European Union country to publicly announce that it would allot starting 2013 almost 1 percent of its income to foreign aid, the UK embassy here said in a statement.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown made the announcement at the Autumn Labor Party Conference that UK would meet by 2013 its previous commitment to ensure Official Development Assistance (ODA) reaches 0.7 percent of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015 as part of the European Union's collective target.
Belgium has already legislated the 0.7 percent target, but this legislation requires renewing this year. The UK legislation would be the first to place into law an ?in perpetuity? commitment to reach and maintain the 0.7 percent target.
Brown said it is his intention to enshrine the government's international commitment into UK law. The draft bill has already been published to allow time for a pre-legislative scrutiny process by the International Development Select Committee.
Brown believes that now, a convergence of global crises?economic and environmental?threatens to reverse recent gains and end an era of progress when it has only just begun.
For poor countries, the climate crisis is not some abstract problem measured in terms of future generations but a stark, dangerous and pressing reality. Without diminishing the suffering the global recession has caused many families in the well-off world, there should be no doubt that in poorer countries it has been the grim difference between life and death.
"That is why today, the UK is publishing draft legislation that would make it the first country in the world to give a permanent guarantee we will reach and maintain the United Nations aid target of 0.7 percent," said Brown last Friday.
He said further that "every country must honor their pledges too. And they must ensure that there is new and additional funding to equip developing countries to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change."
The proposed legislation is the first to enshrine a permanent commitment to the UN's prescribed target of 0.7 percent of GNI for aid.
The UK legislation imposes a duty for the Secretary of State to ensure that the 0.7 percent target is met by the UK in the year 2013 and in each subsequent calendar year; requires the Secretary of State to lay a statement before Parliament in the event that the UK fails to meet the 0.7 percent target in any calendar year from 2013; and provides that the Secretary of State's accountability in relation to the duty to meet the 0.7 percent target is to Parliament alone, by way of the requirement to lay a statement before Parliament.
