Communique

March 27 2009

Summit on the future of New Zealand’s aid.

Representatives of parties, civil society, trade unions, and academics call on the Prime Minister to act on the following recommendations:

• Set up public consultation processes immediately on the future of NZAID (the semi-independent body mandated to deliver our aid), on its structures and its processes before folding the agency back into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

• Establish multi-party talks immediately.

The Summit also agreed the following:

• The focus of New Zealand’s aid and development should remain the elimination of poverty, especially in those countries in the Pacific region closest to us.

• The goal of poverty elimination is made more urgent by the devastation that is predicted for the poorest people in the world as a result of the global financial crisis. Aid flows to poor countries are predicted to halve over the next few years.

• The clarity of our aid’s mandate must be maintained. Learn the lessons of the various independent reviews of our aid, which state that putting aid into Foreign Affairs creates a ‘conflict of goals’. It is not possible to reduce poverty, create diplomatic ties and trade at the same time.

• Focus on more urgent challenges that threaten to undermine aid and economic development; a lack of human capacity to develop economically and a lack of public accountability. A sole focus on economic development does nothing to improve governance. A focus on poverty reduction does.

• Absorbing NZAID and our aid programme back into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will more than double the staff at MFAT, triple the department’s budget, and remove the transparency and therefore the effectiveness of our aid dollars.

• The best people to deliver aid are those who are trained professionals in the area. Maintaining a professional agency like NZAID will safeguard the effectiveness of our aid delivery.

• Returning to old models, where diplomats deliver aid will damage our international reputation and embarrasses us internationally.

• Good Governance will get worse in the Pacific if aid is returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It will send a message to governments that aid is a ‘reward’ for political favours.
The summit was held in Wellington and co-hosted by the Labour Party, the Green Party, The Progressive Party and United Future. It was attended by 120 representatives of the aid and development community, and businesses.

ENDS

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