The UN wants rich countries to double aid

If you want to know what the UN is doing.. or not doing as the case may be, then you should be reading The Diplomad. I am.

The Diplomad reported that the UN has decided to halve world poverty. In fact it has decided to eliminate extreme poverty and has done a 3000 page report telling us how it is going to be done. Yep, three thousand pages. Written by 265 people over three years.

The UN calls it a "plan". No, not a book, a plan. In fact, a practical plan. Well, the full title is "A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals". Sheesh, if 3000 pages written by 265 people over several years is a plan, I`d hate to read the manual.

One of the ideas is for rich countries to double their investment in poor countries. Brilliant! Hey, why not even triple the investment and end world poverty earlier.

The report recommends that rich countries increase aid to 0.44 percent of GNP in 2006, (that’s, next year, in case the UN wasn't aware) or $135 billion, and 0.54 percent of GNP, or $195 billion, by 2015. That’s more than three times what is currently being provided in aid by rich countries. Currently rich countries have been asked to give 0.7 of its GNP, but most have averaged 0.25 percent. The US provides just 0.15 percent of GNP in aid.

The Washington Post has a report on the UN Report: "( Special Advisor Jeffrey) Sachs...noted that the distribution of international aid has been woefully inadequate in recent years, with only 30 cents of every aid dollar reaching the poor.

Well, that’s the UN for you. Why can't they increase aid distribution to 60 cents of every aid dollar?

Why don't these report writers just provide the aid instead of having the UN spend bucketloads writing reports on how they would like to do it - and then tell other countries to pay double what they are paying now, when some countries are not even meeting 30 percent of the initial target in the first place.

Interestingly, the small print in the report says, "This publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme, or their Member States."

Or anyone else.