Czech foreign development aid improving but could be more effective
As the Czech Republic gears up for EU accession, there has been much discussion in the media regarding the structural funds the country hopes to receive from the European Union. As a result, many people might be surprised to learn that the Czech Republic is also itself an active donor of foreign aid for less developed countries. This week, the Czech Association for International Affairs held a public discussion in Prague on whether this development aid has been effective.
Despite being seen as a net beneficiary in terms of foreign aid programmes, there is a long history of international development cooperation in this country. During the Cold War, the government of the former Czechoslovakia actively provided foreign aid to "friendly" communist third-world countries. Despite grappling with the difficulties of a transitional economy, the Czech government renewed its foreign aid policy as far back as 1995.
At a discussion held in Prague this week to assess the effectiveness of this development assistance, there was general agreement among many of the participants that the government's aid programme could be more efficient. Coordination and communication between different government bodies were frequently cited as a major problem. This was a view echoed by Simon Panek, Director of the Relief and Development Department for the Czech People in Need foundation, who was also a speaker at the discussion:
"Czech foreign development aid is still divided, primarily as a result of the lobbying of different ministries, who are of course pushing their ministerial interests instead of the interests of the beneficiaries in developing countries. On top of this, a good portion of the aid is still used as a kind of subsidy for Czech exports. It's much better than it was five years ago; it's much better than the rest of the Visegrad or Central and East European countries as far as I know, but it's much worse than the worst of the EU countries."
At the moment, most of the Czech Republic's development aid is directed towards former Communist countries. Mr Panek thinks this is logical:
"For sure there are certain comparative advantages in the former Soviet countries. This is because of our common history and language, as well as our common social structure, and the common structure of power and decision-making processes. These countries are not seen as being among the least developed countries, but I think that a few of them - perhaps in Central Asia - should be a target for the Czech Republic as well."
Mr Panek rejected any suggestion that - with its huge deficit in public spending - the Czech Republic should be more concerned with putting its own house in order before focusing on foreign aid. He maintained that even major donors such as the United States also had large internal debts. He also said that the Czech Republic was one of the 40 richest countries in the world and that it was part of its global responsibility to contribute something to international development cooperation, even if it was just a fraction of the country's GDP. I asked Mr Panek if the UN target for developed countries to spend 0.7 % of their GDP on foreign aid was realistic for the Czech Republic:
"It's definitely useful to have such a target. There are not many countries that reach it, but we should look at the real situation, which is that in the EU it's less than 0.3 % at the moment. In the Czech Republic it's 0.02 % or something like that [depending on the methodology that is used]. I don't think that the Czech Republic will be able to contribute 0.7 %, but if it can reach 0.3 %, which is the EU target for the next five to six years, then I think this would be a great achievement."
