GF Heiserer: “Millions of people are fighting for survival in the Global South. Children are robbed of the chance to live a life of dignity. They depend on development cooperation.”
Vienna (OTS) – „
The stagnation of Austria’s public development aid is the wrong approach in current times, which are characterized by multiple crises with devastating effects such as famine, drought, floods and war.”
So commented Reinhard Heiserer, managing director of the Austrian development organization Jugend Eine Welt, the preliminary figures on Austria’s official development assistance (ODA) published today. For 2023, this amounted to only 0.38% of gross national income (GNI). Instead of an urgently needed increase, Austria’s ODA quota has fallen by 0.01 percentage points compared to 2022.
Millions of people rely on development cooperation
“Of course, problems like inflation are currently hitting us hard in Austria. Nevertheless, we must not forget that millions of people in countries of the Global South fight for survival every day. Children have no opportunity to go to school and are robbed of the chance to live in dignity. They depend on development cooperation and must not be left alone. For Austria, the internationally agreed goal of the OECD countries to provide 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) annually for official development assistance (ODA) should be a top priority, especially now – in times like these.”
, Heiserer continues and also reminds us of the fact that the Austrian government has committed to the 0.7% target in both its government program and the three-year Austrian development cooperation program.
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