Development on the Front Line

Are we putting our resources in the right places?

BBC Radio 4's Analysis: Development on the Front Line will broadcast on Thursday, 27 November, 2003 at 20:30 GMT.

After September 11th, politicians stated that rooting out the causes of terrorism - and not just chasing the perpetrators - was at the top of their policy agenda.

Poverty, instability and injustice were identified as potential breeding grounds which could be exploited for terrorist activity.

This attention to global inequalities was music to the ears of western development agencies who had been arguing for a long time that we could not hope for a safe and secure world while these discrepancies exist.

But now the priority given to the "War on Terror" appears to be diverting both political attention and money away from wider global challenges, including poverty relief and unresolved conflicts.

Afghanistan continues to absorb political and military attention as well as humanitarian and development funding.

But it is Iraq which dominates American and European agendas.

To what extent is the unstable situation in Iraq and the large bill for reconstruction there drawing both funds and political will from less high profile countries, whether in Africa, Asia or Latin America?

And who will pay for any new emergencies - famine or earthquake - if contingency funds are being spent on Iraq?

It's even being suggested that direct counter-terrorism measures, such as beefing up airport security could be an acceptable goal of development policy.

So while both the EU and the USA have made promises of higher aid levels in the coming years, that aid money - if it arrives - may not go to the big UN anti-poverty goals they committed to in 2000.

Kirsty Hughes asks whether the "War on Terror" is now boosting development policy or undermining it.

Interviewees include: Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development
Patrick Cronin who was in charge of setting up President Bush's new development agency "The Millennium Challenge Corporation"
Justin Forsyth, Director of Policy at Oxfam.

Presenter: Kirsty Hughes
Producer: Ingrid Hassler
Editor: Nicola Meyrick