As part of the Stop Poverty! (Nequirdu l-Faqar!) Day to be held around the world on 7 July, the Stop Poverty Malta Campaign Group, which is made up of 40 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), has appealed to the Maltese Government to show stronger commitment to the world’s poor in terms of overseas development aid.

The Stop Poverty Campaign (Malta) appealed to the Maltese government to improve transparency in reporting ODA figures, providing detailed reports of expenditure and beneficiaries of aid, issuing an official development policy as promised and stopping the imposition of conditions regarding the repatriation of migrants when giving aid.

The Stop Poverty Campaign (Malta) said: “According to CONCORD – the European NGO Confed-eration for Relief and Development made up of over 1,600 NGOs – several European governments will not keep their promises of aid to poor countries by 2010 unless they radically increase their provision of genuine aid resources. The EU target for 2010 is for each member state to spend 0.17 per cent of GNI in aid.

“According to the European Commission’s April 2007 figures, Malta spent EUR7 million or 0.15 per cent of GNI on ODA in 2006 – less than what it contributed in 2004, when it spent 0.18 per cent in ODA.

“Apparently, what is reported under Malta’s ODA seems to be primarily spent on migrants during their first year in Malta, and on repatriating migrants. While we recognise that this is a cost on Maltese resources, and that supporting refugees is vital, we agree with CONCORD that this cannot be considered as overseas development aid, unlike development assistance which is used directly to help alleviate poverty in poor countries. The government should improve its transparency in reporting ODA figures, by providing detailed reports of expenditure and of aid beneficiaries”.

Stop Poverty also appealed to the government to withdraw its insistence that Maltese aid should to be conditional on the acceptance of the repatriation of migrants. The repatriation of migrants is not related to the alleviation of poverty, Stop Poverty said.

It appealed to the government to move towards dialogue with poor countries and NGOs and to call for global structural changes towards more global equality.

Although Malta is a small country, said Stop Poverty, it can surely have a better say in the quest to reach the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, namely: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; build a global partnership for development”.

A concert is being organised by Zizza Ensemble, in collaboration with Stop Poverty Malta, for Saturday at the Sliema Surfside at 8.30pm.

The aim of the concert is to raise awareness about poverty issues and raise money in aid of a project in Ethiopia. Zizza Ensemble, Access-To, The Deap Blue Project Band and DJ Bob will perform on the night.