MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

World's leading donors development assistance dropped in 2006

The world's 22 leading donors cut their total official development assistance, ODA, by 5.1% in 2006 compared to 2005 with only 16 members complying with the 2002 Monterrey summit development financing objectives, according to the latest ODA report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Total aid in 2006 reached 103.9 billion US dollars which represents 0.30% of members' combined Gross National Income. In real terms this is the first fall in ODA since 1997, though the level is still the highest recorded with the exception of 2005. OECD anticipates that ODA will again drop in 2007 and will only pick up in 2008. Of the 22 ODA countries only Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Japan have not reached the ratio levels established five years ago in Mexico. The only countries to reach or exceed the United Nations target of 0.7% of GNI were Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark. The largest donor in 2006 was the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Japan, France and Germany. In 2006, net ODA by the United States was 22.7 billion US dollars, a fall of 20% in real terms. Its ODA/GNI ratio also fell to 0.17%. The fall was mostly due to debt relief which was exceptionally high in 2005 as the United States forgave all its outstanding debt with Iraq in 2005 rather than spreading it over several years. On a gross basis, ODA represented about 116 billion US dollars. The largest donors were the United States (24 billion), Japan (18 billion), the United Kingdom (13 billion), Germany and France (12 billion each), the Netherlands (6 billion), Spain and Italy (just over 4 billion each) representing 80% of the total. Before the Monterrey meeting the then fifteen EU members committed to collectively reach an ODA level of 0.39% of their combined GNI, with a minimum country target of 0.33% by 2006. Most members reached the country target, except for Greece, Italy and Portugal. Spain just missed on these provisional data due to recent changes in its national accounting system. The combined result in 2006 was 0.43%, well above the target of 0.39% set in 2002, mainly due to debt relief grants. Since 2002, some EU members have set, and reached, even higher goals for 2006. Belgium set an ODA target of 0.5% of GNI; Sweden has surpassed its target of 1%; Denmark committed to maintain a minimum ODA/GNI ratio of 0.8%; and Ireland to attain a level of expenditure of EUR 734 million in 2006 (and to reach an ODA/GNI ratio of 0.5% in 2007 and 0.7% in 2012).