Cameron pledges to keep sending 'billions in foreign aid'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...rseas-aid.html
David Cameron pledges to keep spending 'billions in overseas aid'
David Cameron has committed to keep spending billions on overseas aid for the next two decades.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Telegraph
Speaking in Liberia, where he is attending an aid conference to set the next Millennium Development Goals after 2015, he said he wanted to plan British spending in the developing world.
He said: "Liberia is a country that was absolutely devastated by conflict and civil war. It is now recovering, but there’s still desperate poverty here.
"I’m here because I’m co-chairing the panel that is going to write the rules for aid and development for the world for the next 20 years, and I think it’s very important we keep a focus on eradicating extreme poverty – here in Liberia, one in 10 children don’t make it to the age of five – but I also think it’s important we look at those things that keep countries poor: conflict, corruption, lack of justice, lack of the rule of law.
"Those things matter, as well as aid and money, and that’s what I’ll be arguing for very strongly here at … here in Liberia."
Mr Cameron is in Liberia to attend a UN meeting on development. He called for a new way of international development targets to focus on extreme poverty.
He also insisted bolstering security and civil structures was crucial, alongside aid measures.
The high-level panel, which Mr Cameron is jointly chairing with the country's president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is part of the process to decide what targets to bring in after the Millennium Development Goals expire in 2015.
Speaking to reporters this morning, Mr Cameron said: "I think it is very important we keep a focus on eradicating extreme poverty.
"These things matter as well as money."
Backing ambitious targets could fuel anger among Tory backbenchers at plans to raise aid spending to 0.7 per cent of UK GDP.
The premier was forced to concede today that the defence budget could face more cuts in 2015-16, while the international development budget is protected.
David Cameron met with schoolchildren in Monrovia earlier today and said that too many children in Britain wanted to be "popsters and footballers" when they grow up.
The Prime Minister visited the Anna F Whisnant Elementary school with the country's president, 74-year-ild Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Meeting children in the playground outside the school, he asked them all what they wanted to do. The replied that the wanted to be doctors, lawyers even a Government minister.
Asked by Mr Cameron what they would do if they ran the school, one child replied: "Open a library."
Mr Cameron was clearly impressed with the answers, joking: "If you ask children in the UK, all they want to be is popsters and footballers."
Mr Cameron then stressed that he did not want to be unfair on all British children, and that many British children worked hard to achieve worthwhile careers.
The prime minister then went into a classroom where he met more of the children.
The school used to be a home to the MoD. The MoD site was knocked down by govt in 1982, under the Charles Taylor administration, and the area fell into decline with a high level of crime.
Several organisations have recently donated funding for the sports field or 'mini sports stadium', with a full size astro-turf football pitch which was just being finished on the Prime Minister's visit.
Local press reported the opening of the sports facilities as 'From killing fields to recreation haven'.
Reasons against foreign aid,
1) The country is facing a massive amount of debt.
2) It's immoral to tax the poor people of this country to give to the rich overseas.
3) A great deal of foreign aid ends up in the pockets of dictators, or is used by them as a political tool.
Reason # 1013 why the Conservative Party is finished.
Thoughts? is Cameron right?
