Development Aid: The right track to follow to ease global poverty?  

Global poverty is a misery and injustice to which many young people in Europe become increasingly sensitive. While we waste food and dwell in luxury, people more to the south are starving to death. The moral dilemma is tremendous, the challenge to put an end to poverty seems unreachably far away and the common answer is resignation. Our big question is, how can YOUth contribute to the mitigation of global poverty?  

In view of the UN Millennium Development Goals there is at present a contested obligation for governments of the north to dedicate 0.7% of their GDP to development aid. We would like to get into the present debate whether this percentage is set too high or too low, and wonder what is true about claims that so far development aid has not only show to be not effective at all but might even have worsened the situation for countries of the south?

First, Bernhard Wenger, Head a.I. of the development policy analysis division at the SDC (DEZA/DDC), will explain Switzerland’s strategy of development and cooperation for partners in the south that aims at helping people to help themselves. He will elucidate why development aid is important and in which ways it can improve the lives of people suffering from the deprivation of goods required to satisfy their basic needs.  

Second, Marc-Antoine Fournier who teaches at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales et du Développement (IHEID) and has a long-standing experience both in theory and practice of development aid, will illustrate the divergence between practice and theory at the aid of concrete examples, point at development aid's short-comings and show how academic research can contribute to the amelioration of development aid practices.

Last but not least, the speakers will respond to YOUth’s questions and reactions and elaborate on how they offer opportunities for YOUth to become active in the effort to fight against global poverty.