06
Oct
A development group has condemned the global system for measuring aid, orchestrated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, as not fit for purpose after finding that $250bn (£157bn) of financial assistance pledged to fight poverty between 2000 and 2012 never left western donor nations.
The campaigning and advocacy group ONE said in its annual health check of international aid flows that one-sixth of the total money promised in aid was actually spent on debt relief, administrative costs or was spent hosting foreign students and refugees.
“While it can be argued that some of this spending benefits developing countries, it is not clear how much does, and there is a lack of transparency and consistency among donors in reporting these costs,” the report said.
After a two-year decline, overseas development assistance (ODA) increased to just over $131bn in 2013, said ONE, which was co-founded by Bono. It added that collectively donor countries were spending 0.29% of national income on aid, well below the UN target of 0.7%.
“Progress is very uneven across donors. Some countries, including the UK, Japan, Germany and Norway, increased their ODA significantly in 2013.”
The UK hit the UN’s target for the first time last year, joining Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg as the only donors meeting the pledge.
The report said that western aid was not being targeted at the least developed countries (LDCs). Donors spent 0.09% of their gross national budgets in LDCs in 2012, compared to the UN target of 0.15-0.2%.
“LDCs remain highly dependent on aid, which accounts for over 70% of their external flows and is equivalent, on average, to half of their tax revenues”, ONE reports. It called for 50% of donor financial assistance to go to the world’s poorest nations.
The study also found that African governments were not meeting their own commitments to allocate sufficient public spending to areas such as health, agriculture and education.
“Most countries still have a shockingly low level of per capita spending, owing to a limited tax base and the loss of potential government revenue through corruption and illicit financial flows,” the report said. Between 2010 and 2012, only six of 43 countries in sub-Saharan Africa met their pledges to devote 15% of their national budget to health.
Only one of 33 countries met a commitment to spend 9% of public money on education. The United Nations is working on a new set of development goals to be published next year. These will replace the Millennium Development Goals, which set targets including a halving of global poverty, universal primary education and a two-third reduction in infant mortality.
The report can be accessed at: http://one_org_international.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/oct/06/157bn-aid-donor-nations-bono-charity-one