What is Thatcham 0.23?
As long as 30 years ago the UK agreed a target to give 0.7% of its income in international aid. As a country we have never met this target. The closest we have ever got was 0.51% (half a penny in the pound) in 1979. “The situation is absurd in many ways – at least 10 million people dying each year because the rich world refuses to spend 0.7 percent of GNP on aid! For Africa specifically, we would need around $70 billion per year to enable Africa to get on to the ladder of development. That’s $70 per person per year from each of us in the rich countries. It’s about 0.2 percent of our annual income. It’s well under the annual cost of the Iraq War. Indeed, it’s about 2 percent of the estimated wealth of the world’s 1,000 billionaires. And consider that Wall Street and the City of London together took home Christmas bonuses of some $40 billion this past holiday season.” Jeffery Sachs speaking on BBC Radio 4 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2007/) The situation is a disgrace but as a commu
