EYP Talk - Your voice on Europe's future. This is the online forum of the European Youth Parliament in the UK.

More and better aid?

More and better aid? What should be the EU’s priorities in the fight against global poverty?

The panellists in this discussion are:

Barbara Stocking
Director, Oxfam GB

Barbara Stocking is the Director of Oxfam GB – a development, relief, and campaigning organisation that works with others to overcome poverty.


Caroline Lucas MEP

Dr Caroline Lucas is Green Party MEP for South East England, and is a member of the European Parliament’s International Trade and Environment Committees. She was first elected in 1999, and before that worked as head of trade policy for a major development agency.

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Response

Posted by Barbara Stocking on 23/02/2007 - 12:54

Richard Royal asks why the EU should spend money on tackling global poverty – particularly in Africa – when there are poor people in Europe. Sophie Stewart asks if we can manage simultaneously to alleviate poverty today whilst acting to prevent the future poverty that climate change will cause.

Both are important questions. I believe that there is an urgent imperative to tackle global poverty and inequality – in both rich and poor countries – and in 1996 Oxfam established the UK Poverty Programme, bringing our experience of working with poor communities around the world to help in finding innovative and effective solutions to tackling poverty at home.

At the same time as tackling poverty, the world’s leaders need to take bold and adequate steps to stop global warming. Poor countries, and especially poor rural communities, are already suffering impacts associated with climate change – such as changes to weather patterns and extremes of drought and flooding. The poorest are hit hardest, and they have the least ability to cope. So, doing one and not the other is not an option. We have to do both, and we also have to ensure that adequate funds are made available to poor countries to adapt to the changes that are happening.

What is at issue is not whether or not the European Union and other rich countries can afford to tackle poverty and climate change, (they can!), it’s whether they have the political will to do so: to deliver long-promised aid to poor countries, to tackle poverty and inequality in their own countries, to truly work to make trade fair, and to agree to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and take other steps to tackle global warming.

We need to keep up the pressure on politicians and governments around the world to do all of this. This brings me to AHardman’s question – is there anything that young citizens of Europe can do? To which I say a resounding, ‘Yes!’ There is a lot which you can do – you could send an email to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, write to or visit your own MP or MEP, sign a petition, or take part in a demonstration or a local event. Oxfam is one of many campaigning organisations in the EU, and you can find out more about the sort of things you could do on our special websites:
www.oxfam.org/generationwhy and www.oxfam.org.uk/changeminds
If you are outside the UK you can visit http://www.oxfam.org/en/index.htm to find details of an Oxfam near you.

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