New Thinking on Aid and Social Security

This chapter is about the role of aid in a globalised world where the average Ethiopian has less to live on in a year than many of the people who read this report will earn in a day. It sets out a new agenda for global aid – its potential to advance social justice on a global scale and underwrite the provision of basic social security for all in an era of globalisation. Social security and inter country transfers in the interests of human security and development are a standard part of the social and economic\architecture of most developed countries. Large-scale, cross-border transfers were possible 60 years ago under the Marshall Plan and have been a fundamental plank of the European Union. But the globalised economy currently has no provision or mechanism to provide social welfare and protect the poorest. Now, large scale international transfers between richer and poorer countries need to be built into the global architecture.