By Deanna Harris
New Zealanders are more charitable than Australians according to ChildFund.
The survey of 1,000 Kiwis by Nielsen on behalf of ChildFund New Zealand.found that a third believe the problems facing children in developing countries have worsened in the last decade, and more than half think that overall spending on international aid should increase.
A similar survey recently conducted by ACA Research on behalf of ChildFund Australia.showed over 70 percent of Australians believed problems in the developing world have not worsened in the past decade and over 60 percent saw no need for increased funding on international aid.
“Poverty is not an issue that is going away,” says ChildFund New Zealand CEO Paul Brown.
“Fortunately the survey confirms what we experience regularly. New Zealanders are highly conscious of global issues and extremely generous compared to the other dozen donor countries in which ChildFund operates. We have the distinction of having the second most generous population when it comes to sponsoring children, more than double the percentage of Australia per capita, and beaten only by the Danes.”
The survey also measured the public’s perceptions of children’s needs in developing countries and their views on international aid.
Even though nine out of 10 New Zealanders surveyed recognise Africa as the region with the greatest poverty and hardship for children, Kiwis are most likely to make spontaneous donations to countries such as Haiti and Samoa, which recently experienced natural disasters that received extensive media coverage.
The survey also found Wellingtonians were the most opinionated and conscious that New Zealand’s aid efforts were lacking.
“The issue of lack of access to clean water and sanitation was most visible to Wellingtonians, 91 percent of whom perceptively rated this as a major issue for developing countries, compared with the national average of 78 percent. They also were more strongly of the opinion it was our collective job to do more through donations than the rest of the country did.”
When asked to rate the effectiveness of different institutions at helping children in developing countries, New Zealanders and Australians were unanimous in rating international aid agencies and the UN as more effective than their respective governments and the private sector.
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