Each year, 11 million children die before reaching the age of 5 from causes related to poverty. 70% of these deaths are due to malnutrition, a lack of drinking water and easily preventable illnesses such as measles and malaria. 99% of the deaths of children less than five years old take place in poor countries.

Meanwhile, and despite the general increase in Aid, the Spanish Government has reduced its Aid to Africa in 2007. Less than 20% of the Aid goes to basic social services like nutrition and health.

Our objective is: to increase the official development aid to 0.7% of the GDP and detach it from commercial and economic interests, focusing the aid on developing countries and basic social services like nutrition, education or health.

Objective 2: To Achieve universal primary education for all children in the world

Almost 100 million children live without access to schooling. 57% are girls.

Despite this situation, the Spanish government allocated less than 10% of its aid to education, and only 10% of this aid to basic education.

We believe that: Official Development Aid in education must be mainly destined to guarantee everyone the right to basic education that is free, compulsory and high quality. ODA in Education must mainly focus on developing countries, giving priority to Sub-Saharan Africa. At least 70% of ODA in education should go to basic and secondary education, as proposed by the Development Coordinator for NGOs.

Objective 3: Guarantee universal access to health services

Every minute a women dies due to pregnancy related causes: 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries. In 2006, 2.9 million people lost their lives from HIV / AIDS and 1.7 million died from tuberculosis.

The Spanish government allocated at least 10% of its aid to health.

We believe that: Spain’s cooperation should guarantee universal and free access to health services. The total health-related ODA in Spain should more than double in the next legislature, aiming for 0.01% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) –independently from the overall aim of 0.7%.

Objective 4: Develop a more fair and democratic global trade system

There are 900 farmers in our world who do not have access to markets to survive. Each cow in Europe receives one hundred times the aid received by a person living in Africa. The subsidies policy for production and taxes in the EU eliminates any beneficial effect that official European help could generate.

We propose: an in-depth reform of the European Union’s Common Agrarian Policy, along with a greater participation by Spain in the World Trade Organization to help those countries freely access international trade.

Objective 5: Guarantee access to basic essential medicine

Intellectual property rights do not allow poor countries to protect their own public health. More than 50% of the total budget in Sub-Saharan African countries goes to paying patents to pharmaceutical laboratories, limiting the amount of medication obtained and the construction of hospitals.

89% of pregnant women carrying the HIV virus do not have access to treatments that would prevent them from infecting their children.

In Sub-Saharan Africa only 28% of those infected by AIDS are receiving retroviral treatments.

We demand: fulfilment of the Doha Declaration approved by the WTO, which requires member countries to facilitate the export of generic medicines to all poor countries with a limited capacity to produce their own so that intellectual property rights stop limiting Southern countries from protecting their public health.

Objective 6: Debt-relief for the least developed countries (LDC) and a reduction in mid-developing countries

Many of these countries spend more of their budget on paying off their debt with Northern countries than on education or health.

Our objective is: to eliminate the debt of the least developed countries and reduce it in mid-developed countries, while linking debt operations with social investments.

Objective 7: Limit defence spending

The Ministry of Defence’s budget including its autonomous organisms and other defence programs, increased 6% in 2007 reaching 17 billion euros, almost 10% of the total governmental budget.

Military Research and Development received almost 1,6 billion in public spending. That is, 5 times what was spent on health research; double what universities received for research; and 20 times that of agrarian research.

We believe that: defence can not be the budget item that grows most. On the contrary, we propose a gradual reduction of this budget, eliminating military research 1,6 billion euros and military missions abroad.

Objective 8: Eliminate involuntary migrations

To eliminate poverty means to solve the root problems of many people that put their lives at risk by emigrating in search of a better future. Development aid is not an expense for Northern countries, but a profitable investment.

Objective 9: Solve one of the main causes of environmental destruction

Investing in the development of Southern countries, eliminating their need to over-exploit their natural resources and eliminating the trade barriers on their agricultural production would favour progressive harvesting on their lands and help preserve valuable natural eco-systems.

Objective 10: A stable world in peace

World peace is not possible with half of the world’s population living poorly on only 2 euros a day. Fundamentalism thrives on the less-fortunate due to their lack of education and resources. In addition to bringing about justice, development policies are a profitable investment in stability and peace.

Por Un Mundo Más Justo 2008, all rights reserved
Spanish Ministry of Interior’s Registry, Volume V, sheet 330
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