Disappointing Aid Figures Released by OECD

The 2008 aid figures released at the end of March by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), show that despite the huge impact of the financial crisis on developing countries, development aid has barely risen.

The financial crisis has seen EU member states making cuts to their development aid, with Italy reducing its aid by half at the end of 2008 and Ireland cutting its aid budget by ten percent at the beginning of 2009. New member states (NMS) have also seen cuts to their development aid, with Latvia’s aid budget being completely wiped out and Estonia’s recent announcement of a ten percent reduction.

CONCORD calculations suggest that developing countries will receive 27 billion US dollars less in aid between 2008 and 2010 due to the global financial downturn.

NMS governments are not represented in DAC, but some donors reported their changes in net ODA to the committee. The Czech Republic reported a 0.4 percent reduction; Hungary has reduced by 7.4 percent and Poland by 9 percent. Slovakia was the only NMS to report an increase of 14.4 percent to the DAC.

All EU governments have committed to meeting certain aid targets by 2010 and 2015. NMS have smaller targets to reach, but ‘the European Union is still way off track towards meeting its collective target of 0.56% of GNI by 2010,’ according to Jasmine Burnley, Coordinator of the CONCORD AidWatch campaign.

The CONCORD AidWatch report will be launched on 14 May 2009, and will look at the figures in more detail, on a country by country basis, covering all 27 member states, as well as analysing European aid as a whole.

Links:
False Sheen on European Aid Money: CONCORD/AidWatch Press release
http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/internetdocumentsENG/5_Press/1_Press_releases/00pressreleases2009/NGOs-reaction-to-OECD-press-release-31.03.2009.pdf
Development Aid at its highest level ever in 2008: OECD website
http://www.oecd.org/document/35/0,3343,en_2649_34487_42458595_1_1_1_1,00.html

Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG; Sources: http://www.concordeurope.org; http://www.oecd.org