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Friday, June 17. 2005

The US helps poor countries more than the amount of aid suggests

Posted by Editors in International Economics on Friday, June 17. 2005

After the G8 debt relief agreement the German media often mentioned the relatively small amount of US development aid. The US currently spends 0.16 percent of its national income for aid, while Germany for example spends 0.28 percent. The Center for Global Development (CGD) and the Foreign Policy Magazine (FP), however, remind us that "helping poor countries is about more than giving money—it's about taking responsibility for policies that affect those less fortunate." The 2004 CGD/FP Commitment to Development Index "ranks 21 rich nations on how their aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and technology policies help poor countries."
The United States has a slightly better score than Germany! Denmark and the Netherlands earn the top spots. Sweden, Australia, the UK and Australia rank better than the US and Germany. Japan finishes last.
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One Year after G8 Summit on Extreme Poverty
Due to leadership failures and aid cuts, little has improved since last year's G8 summit on Africa and the Make Poverty History campaign, writes the British Times: Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, is to chair an international group set up by Tony Bla Comments ()
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Tracked: Aug 22, 10:49

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Thomas - #1 - 2005-06-17 00:18 - (Reply)

According to a study by ActionAid, a very large percentage of G7 development aid is "phantom aid", which "never materialises for poor countries, but is instead diverted for other purposes within the aid system", including aid that is not targeted for poverty reduction, double counted as debt relief, overpriced and ineffective Technical Assistance, tied to goods and services from the donor country, poorly coordinated and with high transaction costs, spent on excess administration. 65% of German aid and 86% of US aid is such phantom aid. Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and the UK are most exemplary with less than 30% phantom aid. France is worst with 89% on phantom aid.
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/wps/content/documents/real_aid.pdf

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