Malta's contribution in overseas development aid was superior to that provided by many countries which joined the EU during the same enlargement with Malta.

Deputy Minister Tonio Borg told Parliament yesterday that Malta's contribution at 0.19 per cent of the Gross National Income (GNI) for 2008 was far superior to the contribution made by Estonia, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland.

The aid for 2009 amounted to 0.17 per cent of the GNI. The aid was both in cash and in kind.

Dr Borg said the EU was the largest donor of humanitarian aid with €49 billion. European institutions, considered as a single entity, were the second largest donor. Sixty per cent of aid to developing countries came from the EU, which was also a main donor to the Palestinian Authority.

At present Malta was providing the Palestinian Authority with aid amounting to US$1million over a three-year period. This included training Palestinian policemen in Malta.

Malta's obligations under the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were to provide 0.17 per cent of the GNI by 2010, doubled to 0.33 per cent in 2015. The figures for this year would reflect the contribution in 2009.

A sum of €300,000 had been voted in this year's budget - a 50 per cent increase over the vote for 2007. This did not include aid given by different ministries in kind, such as paid leave to employees providing voluntary services in developing countries or training courses held in Malta.

Minister Borg said that another element of the overseas development aid was the expenditure for humanitarian aid to refugees. Since 2008 the government had been following OECD regulations which permitted expenditure for refugees for the first year of residence only. No immigrants had landed in Malta since October, and if this trend continued, no expenditure would be incurred this year.

Malta would contribute €800,000 in aid to developing countries for projects under the EU climate change programme.

Projects in Africa were given preference.

The €300,000 worth of aid given last year to all Church and lay organisations working in developing countries, which qualified under pre-determined parameters, were aimed at helping in capital projects such as financing part of the construction of an orphanage for children with AIDS in Kenya.

The Mission Fund had helped to build a school in Tanzania while aid had been given to build a distillation plant in Ethiopia and a children's playground in Peru.

The Red Cross was given aid to develop a project in Swaziland.

Scholarships to civil servants from developing countries were awarded by the Mediterranean Diplomatic Academy in Malta. A civil servant who had been granted such a scholarship had put pressure on the Nigerian government to establish contact when a Maltese worker had been kidnapped in that country.

An agreement had been signed with the DiploFoundation, a non-profit organisation with special consultative status with ECOSOC, to provide on-line courses on climate change policy and diplomacy to diplomats in Mexico.

Dr Borg said Malta contributed €50,000 for the victims of the Haiti earthquake, besides €90,000 in kind.

The EU Lisbon Treaty, which had set the aims for the EU development cooperation policy, provided the legal basis for the setting up of the Euro-Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps.

Noel Farrugia (PL) said that the opposition wanted to use the discussion to strengthen Malta's position on the fight against poverty, and asked whether it was time to set up inter-parliamentary committees to gain knowledge on the realities which went beyond statistics.

Malta should focus on the important sectors where it could make a difference. It had the capacity to establish consortia on education, commercial development and alternative energy, where it had expertise.

There should be a committee to identify existing mechanisms of international funds and to propose systems of distribution on an international scale. There should also be a focus on the Mediterranean region, which brought Europe, Africa and the Middle East together.

Mr Farrugia said that although progress had been registered, there were still one billion persons living in poverty.

Development aid should be multi-dimensional for the best solutions to be identified. The organisation would focus on health, education and human rights.

The regional directorate would cooperate with agencies to develop initiatives for different projects. It should also work with voluntary organisations to ensure that development aid would be tackling problems.

Malta should look at the needs of developing countries. To develop commerce in developing countries, one should establish partnerships to help countries identify the important sectors for exports and imports of goods and ensure fair trade. Measures should also be taken to help farmers in developing countries.

The organisation should establish its reputation to assure sustainability of its projects. Malta was able to guide this process through its expertise.

Concluding, Mr Farrugia said that although Malta's financial contribution was relatively low when compared to larger nations', it had competent people to offer.

Karl Gouder (PN) said it was Malta's duty to help other countries in need to reduce poverty and to reach the MDGs worldwide. Respect for human life, freedom and dignity were the three forces which inspired Malta's politics in this regard.

Malta had already helped in emergencies, rehabilitation and the development of countries in need. It had also helped in reconstruction projects in China, Albania and Haiti. The Maltese government had also felt the need to assist countries which were at the bottom of the human development index.

The best way to deal with illegal immigration was to help increase the quality of life in originating countries, thus eliminating the need for people to leave in search of better opportunities.

Reaching the MDGs by 2015 was hampered by HIV, AIDS, child mortality, hunger and gender inequality. The financial crisis and increase in food prices were also exacerbating the difficulties these countries were facing.

Opposition spokesman on foreign affairs George Vella said it was good to note that both sides of the House agreed on the need to help developing countries, not just for altruism but also because the more these countries progressed, the less adverse effects on Malta.

Development aid was a grant, not a loan, and the grantor could only expect to see progress rather than a return. EU aid did not consist solely of money grants but also private investments that amounted to three times the official aid, attracted by progress in the receiving countries.

With only one-fifth of the world GDP, the EU was the biggest donor in development aid. Its target was to give 0.56 per cent of its GDP this year, escalating to 0.7 per cent by 2015.

Due to the global financial crises every country had fallen back on development aid.

Dr Vella said the Spanish EU presidency had looked at new sources of revenue to pass on to underdeveloped countries. These had included new forms of taxation with proceeds to go directly into development aid.

In 2009, about €4 billion had been distributed, mostly to strengthen social infrastructure including education and health. The EU also expected to spend €2.5 million over three years to help developing countries' low-carbon strategies.

The EU's Contador agreement with 79 other countries worldwide was the link not only to help peoples to eat but to introduce concepts of democracy and governability. The Cotonou Partnership facilitated joint action in countries representing half the worldwide population.

The OECD brought together the EU 27 and the 22 most industrialised Western countries in coordinating foreign policy on development aid. Its reliable figures had shown the EU could not achieve its development aid goals by 2015 because many countries had not been able to give as much as expected.

One overriding need was to reduce the waste of millions of euros in receiver countries due to social problems and corruption.

It had been suggested that 25 per cent of proceeds from the CO2 emissions trading scheme should go into development aid. Another suggestion was to have a moratorium on the payment of receiver countries' debts and interests, with industrialised countries waiving the debts of the worst-off countries.

Dr Vella said the EU was doing its utmost to coordinate its own position for the upcoming UN summit in New York in September. Two major reasons for this were the importance of having a strong EU position and because the Union was still smarting from its performance at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

The question begged itself why, in spite of all this collective development aid, hunger had increased in the world. There were more than one billion people who were not just not eating enough but were actually hungry.

Last March, a document on food security had concentrated on available food rather than on funds, which could be deviated. The document was recommending more food with better nutritional value and better management of food crises, as well as help for underdeveloped countries to produce more. Food was essential because no strong development could happen without it.

Close to the end of his speech Dr Vella put a number of questions. Was Malta's development aid being effective, and could it be made more so? How could greater progress be achieved? Why were these funds not being tied to progress in civil administration in receiver countries? Was there any misuse of funds? Was anybody, and who was it, watching to see that funds really got to where they were needed? Were sustainable results being achieved?

Some states decided on which countries to help with their own national interests in mind, rather than the countries most needing help. A fundamental change was needed in the distribution of funds through a joint body of donors and receivers. There also needed to be innovative financing mechanisms.

Dr Vella believed the best road to development was trade, which could help poor countries that exported only 1/50th of their production to the rest of the world. Rather than charity, it was the duty of the world's developed countries to condemn the way multi-national companies exploited the best resources in underdeveloped countries.

Concluding, Dr Vella said development aid was not only a political but also a moral obligation because it involved other human beings and the difference between life and death.

Winding up the debate, Minister Borg said that although the MDGs would not be reached by 2015, one could not say that progress had not been registered. Progress had been registered in poverty terms, but people living in extreme poverty in the last 15 years had increased by 36 million.

There was also an increase in primary education in underdeveloped countries in the last 10 years. The child mortality rate had decreased but not enough progress had been registered in reducing maternal mortality.

The government had always insisted that countries benefiting from aid would have to take irregular immigrants in Malta originating from those countries. This did not apply in cases of humanitarian aid.

The government was committed to increasing the number of scholarships to people coming from developing countries undertaking courses in different sectors.

Progress reports on the aid given to NGOs had been requested and forthcoming. These NGOs had also presented documented evidence of the projects they had undertaken.