Richest nations failing to keep aid promises
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THE majority of the world’s rich donor nations failed to meet their development aid pledges in 2013 and only a third of the money went to the poorest countries, a report said yesterday.
Aid from members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) rose 5.3 percent year on year to a record US$131.2 billion in 2013 after two consecutive years of decline, The One Campaign said in its annual aid data report.
Only a third went to the least developed countries, most of which are in sub-Saharan Africa, despite high-level support for a new target of 50 percent of all aid to be directed toward the poorest nations, said the organization co-founded by Irish singer Bono to end extreme poverty.
As world leaders prepare to agree a new set of development goals next year, One urged both rich and poor countries to address aid shortfalls to ensure the poorest people are at the heart of a renewed global drive against poverty from 2015.
“If donors don’t step forward and target at least half of their aid to those countries that need it most, the world’s poorest people risk being left behind,” said Sara Harcourt, policy director at One and an author of the report.
Seventeen out of 28 DAC members increased their overseas development assistance but despite these rises aid still only accounted for 0.29 percent of their national wealth, short of a United Nations target for aid spending of 0.7 percent.
Britain became the first country among the Group of 7 industrialized nations to meet the target last year, helped by a US$3.95 billion boost to its aid budget.
Japan, Germany and Norway also stepped up their efforts but others, including long-standing aid champions France, Canada and Australia, showed marked declines in aid budgets amid cuts in overall public spending, along with the Netherlands. The United States, the world’s largest bilateral donor, compared poorly with other G7 states in terms of aid spending relative to national wealth, with a ratio of just 0.19 percent.
African governments are also failing to prioritize spending on programs to boost the fight against poverty.
Only six out of 43 sub-Saharan African countries met their own spending goals on health, and only eight met targets on agriculture, the report found.
An additional US$54.8 billion would have been mobilized for health between 2010 and 2012 if all sub-Saharan African countries had kept their promises, One said in its report.
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