Brussels, 06/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - Standing at €53.8 billion in 2010 (0.43% of EU GNI), the volume of official development aid (ODA) of the EU reached a record level, according to the preliminary figures published by the OECD on Wednesday 6 April. This was €4.5 billion more than in 2009, and this has allowed the EU to keep “unchallenged its place as the world's largest donor”.
Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development, took pains to stress this, albeit on something of a flat note, to do with the least-performing member states: “aid budgets still represent less than 1% on national GNI. They must be increased if we are to meet our ambitious goals for 2015 and remain credible. This is a collective effort and we need all players to contribute their fair share”, the commissioner commented. Also pleading in favour of the effectiveness of aid, which is “not only about money”, he announced that he would present proposals this year aiming for the “clearer focus of the future of development policy, better cooperation and a higher impact on the ground”.
Despite a respectable scoreboard, the EU and its member states failed to reach a collective 0.56% of EU GNI, an interim objective which they had set for 2010 of achieving 0.7% in 2015, the cut-off date for the achievement of the millennium development objectives. They were €14.5 billion short of this target. The unequal performances of the member states contributed to this. Whilst 17 member states increased their volume of aid (Germany +9.9%, Austria +8.8%, Belgium +19.1%, Denmark +4.3%, Finland +6.9%, France, +7.3%, Netherlands +2.2%, Portugal +31.5%, United Kingdom +19.4%,) 10 member states spent less than in 2009, when the European ODA fell for the first time (Spain -5.9%, Greece -16.2%, Italy -1.5%, Luxembourg -0.3% but still one of the top aid donors, Sweden - 7.1% but this country still earmarks nearly 1% of its GNI to ODA).
Whilst the UK and Belgium have made efforts to respect their commitments, others, such as Italy (43% of the shortfall) and Germany (46% of the shortfall) are a long way off the mark, as Oxfam International laments. Despite a slight increase in European aid from 2009 figures, the repercussions of the current economic crisis on the aid budgets will not make itself felt until next year, and although the EU remains the world's largest donor, other countries, such as South Korea (+25.7%), are taking major steps towards observing their commitments, the NGO observes.
“2010 was supposed to be the year in which the EU celebrated reaching a milestone towards the millennium development objectives. Instead of which, Europe has failed in this objective and the prospects are poor for the next few years”, said Nicolas Mombrial, adviser to Oxfam. And to put the shortfall into context, the NGO stresses that €14.5 billion is enough to pay for schooling for every child in the world (72 million of them are not on the rolls of primary schools in the poorest countries), salaries for nearly 800,000 midwives in sub-Saharan Africa (where maternal mortality is the highest) and supplying a million people with mosquito nets to help protect against malaria. (A.N./transl.fl)