Report 2007 on Development aid: Europe fails to live up to its promises

Source: http://www.concordeurope.org

For the second year in a row, an unprecedented number of European development NGOs have come together from all the major networks, national NGOs and NGO platforms from 27 EU countries to produce this report under the umbrella of CONCORD, the European NGO confederation for relief and development.

Following the release of OECD aid figures for 2006, NGOs from across Europe are calculating how much European governments and Commission have effectively given. First figures show that they are over inflating their aid figures and failing to live up to their promises. The European Union has only spent 0.30% of its Gross National Income (GNI) on genuine aid in 2006 missing their collective target for 2006 of 0.39% of GNI. Close to one third of EU development assistance in 2006 did not deliver any fresh resources for poor countries. Of this:
- Nearly EUR 11 billion reported as ODA was in fact debt cancellation - primarily for Iraq and Nigeria.
- EUR 1.6 billion went on educating foreign students in Europe and
- EUR 1 billion was spent on housing refugees in Europe.
For the new member states, the report shows that ODA expenditures are still low, ranging between 0,06 and 0,15% of GNI.

NGOs want European governments to:
- Provide genuine increases in European aid
- Agree clear and binding year-on-year timetables to reach, at a minimum, the 2010 and 2015 targets with genuine aid resources
- Stop including refugee, student costs and debt relief in official aid reporting
- Improve transparency in aid reporting
- End all tied aid
- Ensure aid is focused on helping the world’s poor
- Take further steps to make aid more effective

Apart from analysis and comparison of data, the report includes an NGO assessment of each EU country's ODA performance. Download the 2007 NGO Aid Watch Report "Hold the Applause! EU governments risk breaking aid promises" from: http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/internetdocumentsENG/Aid%20watch/1-Hold_the_Applause.FINAL.pdf
Find more about the background and activities around the launch of the report at:
http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=3042