Archive:Development aid statistics
- Data from September 2008, most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
More than half the money spent throughout the world on helping developing countries comes from the European Union (EU) and its Member States. The aims of this development aid, as agreed upon by the European Parliament (EP), Council and Commission, are to reduce poverty, to develop democratic values, and to support national strategies and procedures thus enabling disadvantaged people in the third world to take control of their own development.
The EU’s development strategy:
- focuses on financial and technical assistance to improve basic, physical and social infrastructures and the productive potential of poor nations, including their administrative and institutional capacities;
- also extends to external trade policy, which is used to drive development through the opening-up of markets;
- promotes self-help and poverty eradication through policies that focus on consolidating the democratic process, expanding social programmes, strengthening institutional frameworks, and reinforcing the respect for human rights, including equality between men and women;
- also plays an important role in rapidly alleviating human suffering – as a result of natural disaster or military conflict.
Main statistical findings
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The EU-15 Member States paid almost EUR 47 000 million in official development assistance to Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries in 2006, a further EUR 75 000 million coming in the form of private flows.
There is a long-standing United Nations (UN) target of reaching a level of aid equivalent to 0.7 % of donors’ Gross national income (GNI). While EU members, like other industrialised countries, have accepted this 0.7 % target for spending, currently only Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden have reached this goal. EU ministers agreed in May 2005 to set a collective target of 0.56 % of GNI by 2010, on the way to achieving the UN target of 0.7 % by 2015. The earlier commitment to reach an EU average of 0.39 % by 2006 was met.
Data sources and availability
Official development assistance (ODA) consists of grants or loans that are undertaken by the official sector with the promotion of economic development and welfare in the recipient countries as the main objective. In addition to ODA, total financing for development refers to net disbursements, other official flows, and private flows. Other official flows are transactions which do not meet the conditions for eligibility as ODA (or official aid), either because they are not primarily aimed at development, or because they have a grant element of less than 25 %.
Private flows include private export credits, direct investment and financing to multilateral institutions. Foreign direct investment includes significant investments by foreign companies of production facilities or ownership stakes taken in the national companies.
Commitments include both bilateral commitments and commitments to regional banks. Bilateral commitments are recorded as the full amount of the expected transfer, irrespective of the time required for the completion of disbursements.
Disbursements are the release of funds to, or the purchase of goods or services for a recipient. Disbursements record the actual international transfer of financial resources, or of goods or services valued at the cost of the donor.
Context
More than half the money spent throughout the world on helping developing countries comes from the EU and its Member States. The aims of this development aid were laid out in a December 2005 document agreed by the European Parliament, Council and Commission titled ‘European Consensus on Development’, which seeks, in particular, to reduce poverty, to develop democratic values, and to support national strategies and procedures. The ultimate objective of the EU is to enable disadvantaged people in the third world to take control of their own development, through attacking the main sources of their vulnerability, such as access to food, clean water, education, health, employment, land and social services.
The EU’s development strategy focuses on financial and technical assistance to improve basic, physical and social infrastructures and the productive potential of poor nations, including their administrative and institutional capacities. This support has the potential to help third world countries benefit from international trade opportunities and secure more inward investment to broaden their economic bases.
The EU’s activities also extend to external trade policy, which is used to drive development through the opening-up of markets. Since the 1970s, the EU has reduced or removed tariffs and eliminated quotas on imports from developing countries, a policy that was further extended in 2001 to cover the complete removal of tariffs on all imports (except arms) from the 49 Least-developed countries (LDCs) of the world.
The EU promotes self-help and poverty eradication through policies that focus on consolidating the democratic process, expanding social programmes, strengthening institutional frameworks, and reinforcing the respect for human rights, including equality between men and women. Indeed, all trade or cooperation agreements with the third world include a human rights clause as a matter of routine, and failure to comply gives rise to automatic penalties, frozen or cancelled aid.
Aside from long-term, strategic, development aid, the EU also plays an important role in rapidly alleviating human suffering – as a result of natural disaster or military conflict. The EU’s relief activities are global and have, since 1992, been handled by ECHO, its humanitarian aid office. ECHO considers its first duty to be towards the victims of disaster, through the emergency provision of supplies, such as tents, blankets, food, medicines, water purification systems and fuel. The annual budget of this office in 2007 was about EUR 750 million, a little over one half (55 %) of which was allocated to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. In the past, global relief operations have included the Asian tsunami in December 2004 and the effects of hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Key regions to which assistance has been provided in 2007 stretched from the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, to the Palestinian Territories in the Middle East, or the northern Caucasus (particularly Chechnya) to Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan in Asia. Most of this EU aid is in the form of non-repayable grants.
Further Eurostat information
Publications
Main tables
- Title(s) of second level folder (if any)
- Title(s) of third level folder (if any)
Database
- Global Partnership
see:
- Title(s) of second level folder (if any)
- Title(s) of third level folder (if any)
Dedicated section
- Indicators
- Global Partnership (Theme 9)