26 05 20
11:30
HID POLICY DEPT.
OMLETU 2087
10. 245
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4. The notion of interdependence is not a new one, and enlightened (and in some cases less than enlightened) self-interest has long been an important motivation for giving aid and for defending freedom in different regions of the world. Our understanding of the development process is now broader. It embraces, unequivocally, better government and care for the environment, including the global environment. Specific challenges are bound to change over time: we have eradicated smallpox but developing countries are now faced with AIDS. In eastern Europe/FSU we now have an opportunity to help them do something about their potentially lethal nuclear power stations, They also have a growing drugs problem to tackle: we should
help.
3.
Political instability and civil disorder is certainly not new, even if the trouble spots are different ones now. What 19 new is that, with the ending of the Cold War, prospects for resolving some regional conflicts have improved. In the last two years we have also had two major conflicts much closer to home, with different approaches, through the Security Council, for trying to deal with them. Since the Prime Minister's safe haven initiative in northern Iraq, people no longer accept that the world should stand by and watch hundreds of thousands die because evil dictators or warring factions seek to prevent the delivery of urgently needed relief supplies.
Gard
It
The existing definition of oda has served us well, is broadly understood.
1,18 is capable of flexible interpretation to accommodate changing circumstances. We shall be looking at these issues further in the coming months. Radical change is not required, and people would not understand, and would mistrust our motives, if, for example, we sought to count the cost of military activities including UN peacekeeping operations as oda when undertaken in a developing country: predecessors did not do it for Katanga in the 1960s, and we should not for Cambodia
or elsewhere in the 19908.
W
-
Our
7. As for the DAC list of developing countries, I would favour more radical change based on agreed criteria. We have always argued that the "developing world" was far from homogeneous, but an all-embracing list of countries that were neither OECD nor part of the Soviet Empire has always sent the wrong message. As part of the review the richer and more advanced developing countries should be deleted and
/some of eastern Europe/FSU might be included.
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