Examination of Witness (Question Numbers
40-41)
MS KAREN
JORGENSEN
24 FEBRUARY 2010
Q40 Chairman: Clearly, the DAC and
the OECD are, if you like, the ring-bearers for this, which is
very important. You have mentioned cross-party agreement, which
we already have. What are the mechanisms, or, if you put it the
other way round, there are five countries that have achieved the
target but none of them went via legislation, so what are the
factors that have enabled them both to achieve those targets and
hold to them and are there any lessons to learn for a country
like the UK which is aspiring to be in that group, other than
what we are talking about here?
Ms Jorgensen: Some of the factors
that have been underpinning this are strong political support,
strong public support, the ability to get the cross-party agreement,
but I think also what we are facing at the moment is significant
financial crises and it is putting the aid budget in all countries,
including these five, under scrutiny. There has been a debate
in Sweden, there is now a debate in the Netherlands, which is
what was referred to earlier, about whether or not they will be
able to and whether or not they should continue to meet these
commitments. In Sweden the outcome has been yes, they will stick
to them, and in fact they are now at over 1% and they will remain
at that level. In the Netherlands we are not sure of the outcome
yet because the discussion is still ongoing. There is a commitment
there to a spending cut throughout government. If the target were
enshrined in legislation that would be protected, but it is not
in fact enshrined in legislation. There is only a cross-party
agreement which has allowed them to keep to that level up until
now, but if the government says a 20% spending cut throughout
and that is not protected in law, obviously, that is at higher
risk, so I think you do get a little bit of information about
that kind of pressure if it is enshrined in law.
Q41 Chairman: Thank you very much
indeed. That has been extremely helpful and very clear. I think
we will be interested to read the account of the Italian review;
it might be instructive.
Ms Jorgensen: And your own, of
course, will be coming very soon as well.
Chairman: Thank you very much indeed.
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