Left and Right in Global Politics

147 heads of state in 2000, which propose a 50 percent reduction in
extreme poverty by 2015. Since reaching these objectives would
require international aid to be increased significantly, all indications
are that they will end up on the long list of disappointments that have
regularly marked the history of North–South relations. In accordance
with this pessimistic forecast, the UN has estimated that if the current
trend is maintained, Africa would attain the MDGs not in 2015 but in

2147.^67 Yet a number of statistics on consumption patterns show that
the international community’s indifference toward development can
hardly be justified by the scarcity of resources. At the end of the 1990s
Americans were spending more on cosmetics – $8 billion – than the
$6 billion needed to ensure basic education for all. Europeans were

1955

0.60

0.50

0.40

0.30

0.20

0.10

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

% of GNP

Figure 3.4Aid as a percentage of developed countries’ GNP, 1955–2006
Note:Preliminary estimate for 2006. Since 2000, Gross National Product (GNP)
has been modified and renamed Gross National Income by the OECD.
Source:OECD,Development Co-operation Report, Paris, OECD, various years.

(^67) United Nations, “More Cash and Effort Needed to Help Africa Reach Anti-
poverty Goals – UN Official,” UN News Centre, September 16, 2004 (www.
un.org/apps/news/story.asp? NewsID=11892 & Cr=millennium&Cr1=).
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