Promises made to world's poor were lies

OXFAM has reported what some people on the Make Poverty History march feared, but hoped not to hear - that the promises made in Scotland to the world's poorest by the leaders of the world's most powerful economies are proving to be a lot of hot air and downright lies.

Two years ago, a quarter of a million people marched through the streets of Edinburgh to demonstrate their support for international aid to Africa being doubled by G8 leaders, and debt repayments being written off for at least the very poorest countries. Anyone who expressed scepticism that the Gleneagles summit would prove different from previous summits that had failed to flash the cash promised at previous summits was ignored.

After all, the argument went, Saint Bob won't let the G8 big-wigs back-slide. This time they'll pay up, rather than be outed by Bob Geldof as sweet talkers who don't walk the walk when the chips are down and children are dying of starvation or from a lack of basic medicines.

"Give them the money," said Bob, who nobody believes to be a phoney, but whose ability to spot one is questioned by many. The former Boomtown Rat met with, and cursed at, the Great 8 in Gleneagles whilst other, equally serious, groups like Oxfam were listened to by lesser members of the circus that descended on Perthshire, and scandalised some whilst making others a bit embarrassed at the cost of a jamboree at which the plight of poor people was talked about.

I wonder if any of those who signed up to double annual aid to the poor of Africa by 2010 blushed with shame when they heard Oxfam's calculations as to how the lot of the poor hasn't been lightened much at all, and that by 2010, the Gleneagles target would be missed by $30 billion?

To be fair to Tony Blair, his blush need not be the deepest shade of red. His Government came closest to keeping its promise of giving $14.9 billion by falling short by a mere $1.6bn, but lets put that figure into context. Last year the rich countries' club of eight spent three times more on bottled water, $58bn, than was spent, in total, on aid to Africa, a continent where children die of dehydration and people have to walk miles to a well.

In the UK, sales of champagne and wine total twice the amount of foreign aid, so maybe it's I who should blush every time I avail myself of special offers on the fizzy stuff.

Then again, if right next to the display for special offer bubbly the supermarket had a collection point for donations to a project to provide adequate water supplies to villages in Malawi, for example, I would contribute.

If a personal connection can be forged between the donor and the recipient, evidence shows this approach will produce a bigger bang for the buck. It also diminishes the chance of good foreign aid money being invested in bad projects or siphoned off by bad political leaders.

It's a safer way of transferring aid money from rich to poor than leaving governments to fix things amongst themselves. That's why the new Scottish Government Minister for Foreign policy, Linda Fabiani, should pick up where Jack McConnell's Malawi policy left off.

To be sure that money and other support and resources donated from Scots is going first to the people who need it most, Jack's lot channelled their aid directly to local projects, not local or national politicians.

Some people were scathing about the relatively small amounts of money donated to groups in Malawi compared to the aid that could be given by the UK Government.

But what would you rather have, big promises or smaller amounts, cash in hand? Ironically, it's often the latter approach that allows people to help themselves, and is therefore preferred by those who international aid is intended to help.

For example, in Zambia, every growing season, elephants ate all the vegetables planted in the Lubinda family's plot. Try as they might, the family couldn't chase away the elephants, and so had no money to pay for schooling for its seven orphan grandchildren.

Enter a small charity, Africa Now, that favours the practical, donor to local project approach of the McConnell aid programme.

Africa Now didn't put the Lubindas in touch with a Zambian Government sponsored programme.

Instead, they donated a handful of chilli pepper seeds for planting round the edge of the vegetable plot. When these grew, the problem was solved. Chilli, whether grown as hedges or processed to produce oil that can be mixed with dung cakes and burnt, makes elephants sneeze hard.

So if you're feeling let-down by the G8 leaders who've broken promises made in your name, urge the Scottish Government to keep up the Malawi aid programme, write to your champagne supplier and suggest how African villages without a water supply might be assisted and remember the true story of the sneezing elephants.