Message-ID: <00990E37A506B240.00001112@tmar.com> Date: Thu, 25 May 1995 14:52:39 EST From: "Chuck B. at Ext. 214" <mailto:chuckb@TMAR.COM> Subject: OECD Annual Meeting and New Report (fwd) To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L
OECD MAKES A BID TO END RICH NATIONS' AID FATIGUE. Alarmed
by the dwindling efforts of its rich country members to help the
Third World, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) took the unusual step of putting development
assistance firmly on the agenda of its annual meeting in Paris,
diplomats said yesterday, reports Reuters. The OECD's latest
move to shake the Western world out of what it describes as
"donor fatigue" follows some unusually critical reports this year
by its Development Assistance Committee (DAC), says the story.
The DAC said in one such report that aid to the developing world,
driven to its lowest level for two decades by budgetary
pressures, is unlikely to pick up soon. It followed that by
rapping the United States and warned that Washington's example
could set a dangerous precedent. Carol Lancaster, deputy
administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development,
said at a news conference that there was a "delicious irony"
between what was going on at the OECD and what was going on in
Washington. Lancaster said there would be a "reflection
exercise" launched at the OECD ministerial meeting to look at the
achievements of aid projects and how aid agencies can make better
use of limited financial resources.
[A new OECD report, entitled "Linkages,"]
predicts strong economic growth for the world's top 15 developing
countries. The report [suggests that] industrialized countries
may fear that jobs are threatened by rising exports from
developing countries but it says gains could far outweigh the
costs....