Ben Phillips · @atbenphillips
29th Nov 2011 from Twitlonger
#HLF4 My exchange with Tony Blair & Raj Shah on #untying #aid. Blair: "in the end, we'll win the argument".
Ben Phillips: Mr Blair, you were one of the first leaders to untie aid, recognising that that's more cost effective, and more effective at building countries' sustainable development. And yet here in Busan many countries still even refuse to name an end date, even this century, as to when they'll untie aid. What can we do to push them further?
Blair: Well in the argument about untying aid, sometimes countries see this as you're asking them to sacrifice their own interests, but in the end it's not really about that. It's about making aid effective, because the more that it's directed to developing those countries, the more, in time, they get off aid. The purpose of aid is to end dependance on aid, not to keep that dependence there, and the reason for untying it is to accelerate that. So I'll carry on making that argument and I think in time we'll win.
Shah: The US moved from 30-some-% untied to over 70% untied, and it's that kind of commitment we need to see across the board as part of an effort to ensure to get better results across the board for every American dollar we spend in development, as now more than ever we need to demonstrate that those tax dollars and investments get results.
Ben Phillips, Save the Children Campaign Mobilisation Director
ben.phillips@savethechildren.org, +82(0)1068841637