Sad to say that my country was a real sucker last year, with the only double-digit decrease ...
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/48/34/42459170.pdfDonor countries collectively increased development aid last year to the highest dollar level ever recorded, despite the onset of the economic crisis, but the O.E.C.D. on Monday urged rich nations to give even more.
The 30-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday that assistance to the world’s poorest nations increased by 10.2 percent in 2008 to $119.8 billion, equivalent to 0.3 percent of donor nations’ gross national income.
But, it said, shortfalls in some quarters meant that wealthy countries needed to find an additional $10 billion to $15 billion on top of their existing donation plans to achieve 2010 international development goals.
“A collapse in the world trading system, the outbreak of protectionism, security problems in developing countries caused by famine and economic collapse will cost donor countries a lot more to fix than the gap between performance and promise,” Simon Scott, head of the O.E.C.D.’s statistics and monitoring division, said in an interview.
“It is time for donors to make the extra effort to meet their commitments to avoid the potentially disastrous consequences that the crisis might have in developing countries,” Mr. Scott said.
The O.E.C.D.’s Development Assistance Committee, in charge of cooperation with developing countries, cautioned that while international goals were within reach, slower economic growth and shortfalls by countries like Austria, Italy and Greece meant that only a special effort could ensure that the international target of $145.1 billion would be achieved by 2010.
Developing nations from Africa to Latin America, their budgets already weakened by food and oil price rises over the past two years, are now suffering from falling commodity prices, waning foreign direct investment and the likelihood of a significant drop in remittances from migrant laborers in 2009.
That makes it all the more crucial that donor countries honor their pledges, despite the pressures on their own economies, the O.E.C.D. said.
Donations last year reached a record level after governments scaled up core aid programs significantly, especially to sub-Saharan Africa, the organization said. Yet contributions still fell below the 0.7 percent of gross national income agreed on by the United Nations in 1970, and below the European Union’s 0.56 percent collective target, it added.
Last year, the United States, Germany, Britain, France and Japan were the biggest donors by volume, with the United States alone donating $26 billion — a 16.8 percent increase in real terms — in net overseas development aid. That help incorporates all forms of development assistance, including disaster and debt relief programs, given by the government to any entity in a developing country.
Contributions from Austria fell, mainly because of a drop in debt relief grants. But they rose from the 14 other E.U. countries that are members of the O.E.C.D.’s Development Assistance Committee, taking their combined development assistance up 8.6 percent to $70.2 billion, or 0.42 percent of gross national income.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/business/global/31DONATE.html
