mr president from a development perspective the importance of budgetary discharge is in assuring taxpayers across europe that the money is being spent efficiently and effectively in the developing world in terms of aid effectiveness as well as matching our zero point seven target for oda contributions
we need to use our current aid budget effectively that is not just more aid but better aid
we need to use eu money as a seed to grow local solutions
we need to look at opportunities to give people in the developing world ownership of their development for example and specifically to the promotion of land ownership for individuals families and communities
countless women die giving birth every year
aids malaria and tb still claim some four million lives a year
we have close on a billion illiterate people in the developing world
that is why we set the target between parliament commission and council of spending twenty of the basic spending on education and health
i am interested in seeing whether we have met those targets
whenever i visit the developing world i am struck by the intelligent and willing young people i meet
these young people are every bit as capable as young people everywhere
they need opportunity and encouragement to be enterprising
investing in education is the key to this
that is why parliament commission and council agreed to those targets
we must now ensure by the audit system that we are meeting those targets
i want to say to the house here in the couple of seconds available to me that in my view one of the ways of relieving people from the terrible poverty they face is by investing in bringing about land ownership in the developing world
i can give an example of where that worked
it is in my own country in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
if you look at why ireland is divided it is because the successful people were given small pieces of land
it is time to stop just thinking of people in terms of aid but to start thinking in terms of people as having the enterprising ability to do things for themselves if they are given the support
