Structuring allocation systems to provide for basic needs

Description

Structuring allocation systems to provide for basic needs involves designing and implementing mechanisms that ensure equitable distribution of essential resources such as food, water, shelter, and healthcare. This strategy prioritizes vulnerable populations, establishes clear criteria for resource allocation, and monitors delivery to prevent shortages and exclusion. By addressing systemic gaps and inefficiencies, it remedies deprivation and social inequity, aiming to guarantee that all individuals have reliable access to the minimum requirements for survival and well-being.

Implementation

At the Social Development Summit (Copenhagen, 1994), the 20-20 principle was supported, in which donor countries assign 20 percent of their aid to the development of programmes designed to meet basic social needs, with receiving countries assigning 20 percent of their budget to similar programmes, as a voluntary, bilateral gesture. The Summit also repeated previous agreements, including the recommendation that countries assign 0.7 percent of their Gross National Product to developmental aid, and the decision made in Paris in 1994, to study on a case-by-case basis the cancellation of all or part of the poorest nations' foreign debt. Delegates accepted ambitious goals in the areas of health and education; however they rejected a proposal of the poor countries' for the creation of an anti-poverty fund, to be financed by an international tax on speculative financial transactions.