TNAG-2752-FCO40-3967-Organisation-for-Economic-Co-operation-and-Development-(OECD-1994 — Page 172

25 09-93

11:15

AID POLICY DEFT. O.D.A.

071 270 DDST

NO.245

Side

8 2:21.66 Ms. Newby -plo.put copy on file.

Ms Sharp

Thanks

for

add your

RESTRICTED

BAC/HLM.

703

sy

hedly ful surprys.

2. Mr. Penton

3. Mr. Ai then

4. Mr. Michcel

Secretary of State

b

3/12

Date:

From:

Baroness Chalker

December 1992

cc.

distribution as attached

DAC HIGH-LEVEL AND EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETINGS, 29 NOVEMBER 1 DECEMBER 1992

1.

I visited Paris for the first part of the annual High-Level Meeting (HLM) of the OECD Development Assistance Committee on 29-30 November. Barrie Ireton covered the second part of the meeting on 1 December because I had to be in Brussels to attend a meeting of the European Parliament Development Committee. You will have seen separately details of the discussion I had in the margins of the DAC meeting on Somalia.

DAC HLM

2. Most of my main opposite numbers from the major donors attended the HLM, having just completed their own public expenditure rounds. There is great pressure on aid budgets throughout the OECD, except in Japan and France. This informed the debate at the HLM on two important issues. First, which expenditures should be counted internationally as aid (ie as official development assistance or "oda"); and second which countries should be on the DAC list of developing countries decisions on which could affect performance against the UN aid target of 0.7%. Both of these issues are under review, with decisions to be taken at next year's HLM.

3.

The Americans, now languishing just above the Irish at the bottom of the oda/GNP table, (0.20% and 0.19% respectively in 1990) are keen to adopt the widest possible concept of oda. The rationale for the American aid programme in the past was guided by the fight against Communism. With the end of the Cold War, the Americans are worried about losing public support for foreign aid. They have therefore latched on to the argument that the "new" challenges that face aid donors

· economic and political change in eastern Europe/FSU, good government, the environment, AIDS, nuclear safety and regional conflicts are of a "global" nature. As a result they are arguing for a broader oda concept.

14.

-**

The notion of interdependence is not a new one,

RESTRICTED