Summary: In this press release put out by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the highlights of their most recent report, The Least Developed Countries Report 2008, are presented, focusing on the need for more “ownership” of aid from receiving countries.
Topic: Should the state department of the Obama administration double foreign aid for Africa?
Category: Governmental Institutional
What Is It? Press Release
Title: World’s poorest countries should design ‘own’ policies to use development aid effectively, report recommends
Publication Information: UNCTAD.org, July 17, 2008, Geneva
Author: No Author Listed
Location: http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=10132&intItemID=4697&lang=1
Accessed: February 24, 2009
Support:
• The Least Developed Countries Report 2008
• Gleneagles Communique 2005
Since this is a press release concerning a UN report, it liberally references The Least Developed Countries Report of 2008 and is mostly just a summary of what is in that report. Statistics and quotes from various sections of that reports appear throughout this press release. The Gleneagles Communique is quoted once, in reference to the concept of more “ownership” on behalf of the recipient country. This concept of “ownership” is fairly new and the quote from the Gleneagles Communique supports the fact that this new concept is being embraced at all levels of government, even the extremely high ones, such as the G8 summit that took place in Gleneagles, Scotland in 2005.
Audience and Agenda: Since this is an official press release, it is safe to say that its audience was the media, and reporters who were going to be writing on the topic of the UN’s latest report findings. The UNCTAD is a quasi-governmental body that works closely with its member governments, organizations of the United Nations system, various governmental institutions, as well as non-governmental organizations, and the private sector, including many research institutes and universities worldwide. Their goal is to ease the process of fully inculcating developing countries into the global economy through policy research.
Usefulness: This document was created so that the information discovered by the UN’s Least Developed Countries Report 2008 would be available to the public via the media. Using the information in this release, the UN has highlighted the most important aspects of the report and made it easily intelligible to the average lay person. It is arguing that those receiving aid should have more of a say in how it is spent and have fewer bureaucratic hoops to jump through because those are just getting in the way. It’s not bringing up the fact that given those liberties, the more corrupt developing governments might have other plans for this aid money they are receiving. They would have to develop some way of measuring the country’s use of the money and progress without all the bureaucracy. In answering the question of whether or not the state department should double foreign aid, this press release would be used to argue that foreign aid should be doubled but only if a lot of reform and foresight comes with it.
Works Cited:
UNCTAD about page
