Letter: Aid commitments

The statistics provided by Oxfam (Platform, 19 November) were astonishing. That we can spend $198 billion a year on shoes but not have ended world poverty over 40 years really beggars belief.

Oxfam highlights the fact that four million fewer children will die this year as a result of overseas aid. That's fantastic. But, when you consider that, in Africa alone, a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria, four million lives saved seems like a drop in the ocean.

Clearly, if all the countries which pledged to give 0.7 per cent of their gross national income in overseas aid back in 1970 had actually done so, the number of unnecessary deaths since then would be much lower. That children are still dying so frequently from curable diseases is simply unacceptable, so it is imperative that we step up and deliver fully on our aid commitments.

Kirsty Cameron

Lochwinnoch Road

Kilmacolm, Inverclyde