Does the money really reach the people who need it? Isn’t corruption usually involved? And why does China actually still get something?
The effectiveness and necessity of development cooperation is often questioned. There are also numerous myths and misinformation circulating around this topic.
Development cooperation has already made an important contribution to moving closer to a world without hunger and poverty. But the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the advancing climate crisis have wiped out some progress. That’s why it’s more important than ever that we work together for a world without poverty and for achieving the Global Goals by 2030. That’s what it takes Development cooperation and humanitarian aid.
Time to dispel some common myths and misinformation.
1. Germany is paying 315 million euros for a cycle path in Peru
At X, formerly Twitter, there are numerous rumors, myths and lies circulating – including from the area of development cooperation. Recently, the fairy tale of the “315 million euro cycle path in Peru”, which was paid for by the German federal government, has spread. The daily News researched and found out that former AfD member of the Bundestag Joana Cotar, now non-attached, got the ball rolling. Cotar mentioned the 315 million in a speech in the German Bundestag on December 1, 2023, according to the daily News.
The CSU General Secretary Martin Huber also took up the topic and criticized what he saw as the incorrect distribution of funds – and blamed the current government for it: “The traffic light distributes money all over the world, but there is apparently none for our hard-working farmers Money there?”
However, the truth is: There were around 44 million euros in commitments from Germany for the cycle paths. Almost half of this has already been approved by the grand coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU).
In addition, were around 55 million euros as a loan for the expansion of an environmentally friendly bus system, which must be repaid within ten years. According to the ministry, a further loan of a good 100 million euros has been promised in 2022. This is a common process that is intended to help economically weaker countries to implement larger projects.
2. Germany generously finances countries like China instead of strengthening its own economy
The question of whether Germany is China and others is constantly being discussed BRICS States through development financing. The BRICS countries are an acronym made up of the first letters of the first five member states: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and largely include middle-income countries.
The BRICS countries together claimed around 10 percent of the total in 2020 German ODA (Official Development Aid, in German: public funds for development cooperation), with India being the largest recipient of German development cooperation among the BRICS countries.
In comparison to other ODA recipient states, however, it is noticeable that a significant proportion, namely around half of the ODA contributions to BRICS states, are loans.
It is often argued that the money would be needed in your own country and would be well spent. However, this is too short-sighted, because development policy is worthwhile for everyone, says a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). to n-tv: “For every euro we use today to make societies around the world more resilient to crises, taxpayers will later save four euros in humanitarian emergency aid, according to World Bank calculations.”
3. Development cooperation does nothing for us – we just give away money without benefiting from it ourselves
Germany benefits from the money invested in development cooperation – in very different ways. Fighting poverty everywhere makes life in this world fundamentally more sustainable and ensures fewer crises and wars, which in our interconnected world always have an impact on Germany. Germany is also an export country. And as such, it has an interest in strengthening other countries economically and in terms of security policy so that German products can be sold abroad. Stable economic growth in countries of the Global South strengthens the middle class and thus leads to new and stronger sales and investment markets.
Through international political relationships – including development relations – countries can come closer to one another and strengthen their relationship. Some African and South Asian countries in particular, which are sometimes considered low- or middle-income countries, are also among the emerging regions of the world. They therefore have great potential and are interesting for economic and political connections and are particularly relevant for Germany as an export country.
4. Development cooperation is inefficient
The impact of development cooperation is particularly often questioned. Some authors argue that development cooperation is inefficient and that there is no evidence that it improves living standards.
Just as not all investments in the private sector reach their goal, the same applies here: not all development projects work – some do not achieve the success they hoped for, others fail completely.
But there are now actually numerous studies that fundamentally prove the effectiveness of development cooperation. An important and legitimate demand is that more transparency is needed. Because the (direct) success of development cooperation is sometimes difficult to measure and is published too little.
We also need realistic expectations: development cooperation alone cannot end global poverty and hunger. But it can help make progress, create economic prospects, strengthen civil society and alleviate the worst excesses of hardship and poverty.
5. We have no money for development cooperation
This is a question of perspective. What is undisputed is that the German state is facing financial challenges if you look at the current federal budget. Recently there has been massive activity in the area development cooperation and humanitarian aid. But it is also true: there are ways and means to distribute money more fairly.
There are always voices calling for a systematic and far-reaching taxation of crisis profits and a higher taxation of the “super-rich” in order to use the income to combat poverty and inequality worldwide. Before the start of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the CSO Oxfam recently pointed out the increasing inequality in the world, but also in Germany. The Oxfam report “Survival of the RichestSince 2020, $26 trillion (63 percent) of the $42 trillion in total wealth growth has gone to the richest one percent of the world’s population, while 99 percent share the rest.
Numerous food and energy companies worldwide were able to more than double their profits in 2022. The bottom line is that corporations and the super-rich are the winners of the corona pandemic and the energy crisis, Oxfam noted.
At the same time, around one in ten people on earth suffers from hunger. According to the World Bank, we are experiencing what is arguably the largest increase in global inequality and poverty since the Second World War. These figures impressively show that there is enough money in the world – it’s just not distributed fairly.
2024-02-15 20:42:50
#myths #misinformation #development #cooperation
