Clare Short: debt cancellation good but not world-changing

By Alex Singleton | 6 March 2005

Clare Short, Britain's former Secretary of State for International Development, says that debt cancellation is often seen as "mystical solution" to poverty, "when in fact it is just the equivalent of giving aid." She points out that: "It is a good thing, but it is not world-changing."

According to BBC News:

Ms Short, who quit the government over the war in Iraq, said the biggest cause of poverty in Africa were "failed states" such as Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Debt relief and aid alone without really strong action to end conflict, arms supply, start building order, the basic institutions of a state, leave the poor outside the whole development system," she added.

Too many people seem to follow the hocus-pocus approach to fighting poverty. They think that government-to-government splurges of money magically solve poverty. Such spending - without reform - does not help development.