CNS STORY: Vatican official says foreign aid must focus more on creating jobs

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CNS Story:

VATICAN-POVERTY Jul-5-2007 (380 words) xxxi

Vatican official says foreign aid must focus more on creating jobs

By Catholic News Service

GENEVA (CNS) -- Foreign investment and development aid must increase and be focused more on creating jobs and improving education in the world's poorest countries, a Vatican official said.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Vatican representative to international agencies based in Geneva, told the U.N. Economic and Social Council July 4, "The question to be posed is not whether, but how additional aid should be given."

He said, "Poverty elimination demands an integration between the mechanisms that produce wealth and the mechanisms for the distribution of its benefits."

While decrying the fact that most wealthy nations are not meeting their pledges for foreign development aid, the archbishop said the international community also must ask why developing countries are not making greater progress with the aid they have received and with the foreign debt forgiveness they have been granted.

Archbishop Tomasi called for more focused aid programs, particularly to create jobs and improve education.

Work, he said, is the only way for a community to generate its own wealth and pay its way out of poverty.

When combined with education, which not only prepares people for the job market but also for good citizenship, "it is easier to reduce corruption -- one of the plagues of poor countries -- and to improve respect for law and property rights, crucial for the positive functioning of an economic system," he said.

The archbishop also urged the international community to take stronger action to ensure that companies doing business in poor countries -- particularly companies extracting oil, minerals and gems -- do more to create a higher level of local employment and provide local populations with access to better training and technology.

The mere creation of greater wealth on a worldwide scale not only has not led to the elimination of poverty, but it also has increased the frustration of the poor, he said.

"The worldwide impact of communication technology and the instant dissemination of information pre-socialize the poor -- the young, in particular -- to expectations of a more decent and humane lifestyle, to which they are entitled," Archbishop Tomasi said. "When such anticipations are frustrated, society faces a risk of violent reactions and peace is endangered for all."

END

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