For the fourth consecutive year in a row, the level of public development aid (PDA) from the EU and its member states increased in 2016 to reach €75 .5 billion (an 11% rise on 2015 figures) but aid to refugees in Europe made up a considerable part of this amount, according to the provisional figures published by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) published on Tuesday, 11 April.
This contribution accounts for 0.51 percent of the EU’s GNI and is still far off the 0.7 percent of target the EU and its member states collectively support but above the 0.21% average of OECD third countries. These figures mean that the EU keeps its number one donor rating in the world. The European Commission immediately said that it was proud of this fact.
In a press release, the Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, explained that it was, “clear proof of our commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals”.
Nonetheless, 25% of this increase is because aid for refugees in Europe has been included in this figure. This increased by 10% to €64.8 billion (as opposed to €59.1 billion in 2015), whilst aid to the poorest countries fell sharply, to the great disappointment of development NGOs.
Aid to Africa falls. This trend was also observed in all OECD countries: public aid from the richest countries increased by 8.9% to reach an unprecedented peak of $142.6 billion in 2016 (0.32% of GNI in donor countries) by calculating the $15.4 billion spent on the costs of hosting refugees (a 27.5% rise in real terms or 10.8% of the total of net PDA), whilst aid to less advanced countries fell by almost 4% (3.9%) in real terms and by 0.5% for African countries. The OECD DAC has announced that it is seeking to clarify the rules governing PDA reporting, in an effort to guarantee that costs relating to refugees do not absorb the funds available for development aid.
5 EU member states are PDA champions. Last year, five member states reached or went over the 0.7% target. Luxembourg was in the lead (a 1% fall), followed by Sweden (0.94% decrease), Denmark (a decrease of 0.75%) and the United Kingdom (0.7%) and – this is a first – Germany (0.7%). The Netherlands is now part of a group of donors whose PDA has fallen to below the 0.7% threshold. In total, 16 EU countries have increased their PDA compared to their GNI, five have reduced it and seven have kept it at the same level.
NGOs criticise rise in “phantom aid” and fall in real aid
The Belgian NGO, CNCD-11.11.11 has pointed out that the increase in Belgium’s PDA in 2016 (0.49% of GNI as opposed to 0.42% in 2015) can be explained by the fact that it includes the costs for hosting asylum seekers in the country and by an exceptional €57 million forecast for financing the EU-Turkey agreement for Syrian refugees and the EU emergency trust fund for tackling the deep causes underlying illegal migration in Africa. The NGO denounces this example of creative accounting and points out the fact that its “real aid” for financing development programmes has reached an historically low ceiling. Arnaud Zacharie, the Secretary General of the CNCD-11.11.11. national development cooperation centre explained, “To respond to the challenges of the 21st century, aid can only be effective if real aid is in a sufficient quantity to finance sustainable development goals. The creative accounting employed to swell phantom aid and mask budgetary restrictions are not a solution”.
"These figures show how easily aid rules can have perverse effects - in this case, disguising the amount of aid that’s actually going to poor countries,” said Polly Meeks, Eurodad’s Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer on Aid.
“Rich countries are misleading the public. They are rebranding as ‘aid’ the money they're spending to process asylum claims or to pay off others to clamp down on migration" exclaimed Oxfam's deputy director of advocacy and Campaigns, Natalia Alonso, at a time when 20 million people in Africa are threatened by starvation. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)