Public Attitudes towards Developemnt

These are drawn from the DFID survey last year of public attitudes towards development …

Key findings:.

Concern with and perceived impact of poverty in developing countries

• Over four fifths (81 per cent) of respondents were either very or fairly concerned about poverty in developing countries.
• Women were more likely than men to express concern about poverty in developing countries (85 per cent compared with 76 per cent).

Importance of poverty issues

• The vast majority of respondents thought that reducing malaria, HIV/AIDS and other major diseases was very important (92 per cent).
• Nearly as many thought that the following were very important: reducing the number of children who die before they are five (91 per cent), that all children should be able to go to school (90 per cent), reducing the number of women dying as a result of childbirth (88 per cent) and men and women having access to family planning services (83 per cent).
• About three quarters thought that reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty (77 per cent) and reducing damage to the environment (75 per cent) was very important. Seventy one per cent thought that better management of the debt problem facing developing countries was very important and 63 per cent thought that fairer global trade was very important.

Awareness of UK Government commitment

• Over half (53 per cent) of respondents thought the UK Government’s commitment to poverty reduction in developing countries was too little, and about a third (34 per cent) of respondents thought that was about right.

Contribution of international organisations to poverty reduction in developing countries

• International charities (mentioned by 78 per cent of people), the United Nations (58 per cent) and governments of richer countries (54 per cent) were considered to be the main contributors to the reduction of poverty.
• The least mentioned contributors were individuals in developing and developed countries (16 and 15 per cent respectively).

Actions that could impact on poverty reduction in developing countries

• The action that people thought would have the most impact was reducing conflict and war: 67 per cent of people thought this would impact ‘a lot’ and a further 22 per cent thought it would impact ‘a fair amount’.
• Over half of people thought that a substantial impact (‘a lot’) on poverty reduction would stem from helping governments in developing countries provide better healthcare and education services (56 per cent), helping developing countries work their own way out of poverty (53 per cent), removing rich dictators through force (53 per cent) and creating a fairer trade system (51 per cent).

Ways in which individuals can help

• Donating to charities was the most popular means by which respondents felt that they could contribute to the reduction of poverty in developing countries: 60 per cent of respondents gave this answer.

• Nearly as many respondents (58 per cent) said that they could make an effective contribution by buying fair trade goods, and 46 per cent said they could avoid businesses that exploit the country or people.

Corruption and waste

• Two fifths (41 per cent) said that they agreed with the statement ‘some people have said that most aid to developing (poor) countries is wasted’: 9 per cent agreed strongly and 32 per cent agreed. Over a quarter (27 per cent) said they neither agreed nor disagreed and the remainder (32 per cent) disagreed.
• The majority (75 per cent) of respondents thought the UK should continue to help poor people with health and education in countries where corruption is discovered in their government.
• The most popular policy suggested by interviewers to help countries with corrupt governments, supported ‘a lot’ by 72 per cent of people, was putting strict conditions on how the money was spent. About half of respondents supported ‘a lot’ helping citizens to hold their governments to account (50 per cent), running projects directly and not dealing with the government (48 per cent), and bypassing the government completely (47 per cent). Nearly as many people (42 per cent) supported working with the governments of developing countries to fight corruption.

Impact of overseas aid in Africa

• About a third (34 per cent) thought that the lives of poor people in Africa had been improved ‘a fair amount’ in the last ten years, and a further 8 per cent thought they had improved ‘a lot’. Nearly half of respondents (47 per cent) thought lives had not improved very much and 6 per cent thought they had not improved at all.

Sources of information about the lives of poor people in Africa

• More than half of people reported that they found out about whether aid has improved the lives of poor people in Africa by watching the TV News (76 per cent), watching TV documentaries (55 per cent) and from Comic Relief and Live Aid (53 per cent).
• Nearly a half (47 per cent) looked at newspapers or magazines, 15 per cent of respondents said that they used the radio and the Internet was used by 8 per cent of respondents to find out what was happening.

The full report can be read here.