Eurovision Aid Contest 2009
On 18 May 2009, Bond and other CONCORD members held a
“Eurovision Aid Contest” exposing European Member States' aid performance.
The event consisted of performers singing songs to represent the aid performance of different European countries. The song performers, wearing the masks of the heads of government of Sweden, Spain, Austria and Italy were then given votes by a jury from Europe and a separate jury from developing countries. Italy and Austria's performances were heavily criticised and received low points whilst Spain and Sweden were praised as leaders in aid provision.
“Words, promises and pledges are nice but real aid commitments are more useful to the poor. From countries like Italy, we need less talk and more action to put an end to poverty,” said Noerine Kaleeba, ActionAid’s President, who is from Uganda.
“Genuine solidarity with poor countries means that European governments need to take action and meet their development promises, ending unfair inflation of their aid figures and ensuring they do not support policies which have a detrimental impact on developing countries” added Javier Pereira, the writer of CONCORD's AidWatch report Lighten the Load.
At the Eurovision Aid Contest
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Sweden won the prize of the best performer of Aid with 10 points since no other European government gives a higher proportion of national income to development aid.
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Spain scored 8 points. Mr Zapatero’s government has increased aid levels from 2007 to 2008, but is still is quite far off meeting aid commitments it has previously made.
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Austria scored only 4 points. Austria is cutting its aid levels, and still counts debt cancellation as aid.
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Italy got “0” points and was the worst aid performer. Italy allocated the smallest proportion of national income to development aid (0.2%) and is set to cut its budget further in 2009
