Pacific Nations Need Help Away From Aid

[unhappycamper]

http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/01/pacific-nations-need-help-away-aid/

Pacific Nations Need Help Away From Aid
By Catherine Wilson

SYDNEY, Jan 29 2014 (IPS) - Long-term dependence on development aid in Pacific Island nations, many of which have been independent for 30-40 years, continues to cause concern.

The World Bank reports that overseas development assistance (ODA) to the region amounts to 469 dollars per capita, compared to 64 dollars in Caribbean small states and 54 dollars in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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“International development cooperation requires a facelift that begs support from traditional and non-traditional donors whose record of increasing support, even to the detriment of recipient nations, continues,” spokesperson for the Vanuatu-based think-tank, the Pacific Institute of Public Policy (PIPP), told IPS.

Equally, “an unwillingness or incapacity of our own Pacific Island leaders to halt the debilitating political mentality of aid dependence must be updated with our own understanding of the political, economic and socio-cultural motivations of donor states that are not always altruistic