Diverting funds for climate change to risk children in poor nations: Oxfam

New Delhi: A week before global leaders prepare to join US President Barack Obama at his first United Nations address on climate change in New York, a study by anti-poverty group Oxfam has warned that diverting overseas aid from economic development to fight global warming may threaten the lives of at least 4.5 million children in the poorest nations.

A new Oxfam report—Beyond Aid—released on Wednesday also warns that at least 75 million fewer children are likely to attend school and 8.6 million fewer people could have access to HIV/AIDS treatment if aid is diverted to help poor countries. Without at least $50 billion a year in addition to the 0.7% of national income rich countries have already pledged as aid, recent progress toward the Millennium Development Goals could stall and then go into reverse.

“Funds must be increased, and not diverted, to help poor countries…Rich countries must not steal money from poor hospitals and schools in order to pay their climate debt to the developing world,” said Nisha Agrawal, CEO, Oxfam India.

There have been great strides toward the Millennium Development Goals since their inception in 2000. In just seven years, 90% children in poor countries have been enrolled in schools. Between 1999 and 2005 there was a 24% drop in the number of people living in extreme poverty, and between 1990 and 2007 the number of deaths in children under five plummeted by 3.6 million, despite population growth.

But despite these gains, poor countries struggling to meet many goals still fall short of the mark. Diverting aid for climate adaptation would strain an already overstretched system. For example, while Zambia now has free healthcare for all people living in rural areas and around 1,49,000 people are receiving lifesaving treatment for HIV/AIDS, one in six children still die before they reach the age of five and the number of mothers losing their life in pregnancy and childbirth is increasing.

Ghana has abolished all primary school fees, resulting in 1.2 million more children being able to attend school. Yet almost half of Ghana’s population lives on less than $1 a day and four out of ten men and women in Ghana cannot read or write.

The report points to the Global Fund, set up in 2002 to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, as an example of how political will on a global scale can mobilise money quickly and effectively. To date, the Global...