In 2022, Ukraine received more aid in one year than any other country since records began, although some of this was spent on refugees within the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The $29 billion [\u20ac27.8 billion] that Ukraine received in 2022 from the “Development Assistance Committee” (DAC) [originally known as the Development Assistance Group (DAG)] the composite organization of 24 member countries and other multilateral institutions was the more than any country has ever received in one year. Ukraine is still at war with Russia, nearly two years after its invasion in February 2022. DAG bills itself as the “place and voice” of major donor countries around the world.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, that figure was dwarfed by the $31 billion spent on refugee donor costs in the country, equivalent to 14.6 percent of total aid, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). . Most of this spending was intended to cover the cost of supporting the six million Ukrainian refugees across Europe. [The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization made up of those developed countries that support the principles of representative democracy and the free market economy. It was created in 1948 as the “Organization for European Economic Co-operation” (Organization for European Economic Co-operation – OEEC), in order to manage the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after the Second World War. Later, membership was extended to non-European states, while in 1960 it was transformed into the Economic Cooperation and Development Organization.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the response to the war in Ukraine and new rules on how aid is classified led to a 7.4% drop in aid to Africa in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 20 EU countries that are members of the ODA to the OECD reported official development assistance of \u20ac87 billion, an increase of almost 19 percent compared to 2021. The data was presented at an online event on Tuesday 22 January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carsten Stauer, the DAC president, described the new statistics as a “glass more than half full” scenario, but expressed his dismay at the reduction in aid to the poorest countries in Africa and the rest of the world, known as “Less Developed Countries” (Law Developed Countries -LDC). “It shouldn’t be like that,” said Staur [a veteran Danish diplomat (born November 9, 1954) who chairs the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee from 2023. He previously served as Denmark’s Permanent Representative to the OECD in Paris. Before that he was Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations in Geneva (2013\u20132018) and before that Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York (2007\u20132013)].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A growing “aid” fatigue has also been reported by the UN and other humanitarian agencies, with funding commitments to Yemen, Sudan and Ethiopia, countries facing civil war and famine, falling far short of required financial commitments. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We’re not doing less for Ukraine, we’re doing more for others \u2014 that’s the political challenge we face,” Staur said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New OECD aid rules, agreed by donor countries and introduced in December 2022, mean that the costs of internally displaced persons can be recorded as OAD for the first 12 months. They also allow as aid and sponsorship the classification of projects related to immigration control and the return of illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022, Sweden, the non-EU UK and Denmark reallocated much of their aid budgets to support Ukrainian refugees \u2014 in Sweden’s case almost 20%. The $31 billion spent on domestic refugee costs represented a 150% increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If refugee costs in donor countries dried up, ODA levels would fall sharply in 12 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rule changes have drawn sharp criticism from civil society groups, many claiming that the integrity of the aid has been compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNot only is there little to celebrate about today’s ODA final figures for 2022, but it is extremely troubling that donor countries continue to turn inward and become recipients of their own aid, even in this period of multiple and interrelated crises,” said Maria Jose Romero, director of policy and advocacy for development finance at the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad). [Eurodad is a network of 53 non-governmental organizations and their seven “institutional” allies from 29 European countries. It and its members form a network that researches and works on issues related to debt, financing development and poverty reduction.] And Ms. Romero added: \u201cWe urgently need greater ambition and political will to maintain the integrity of the ODA. and fulfill the long-standing commitment to allocate 0.7 percent of GNI to ODA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[Official development assistance (ODA) is a classification used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure foreign aid. The DAC was first adopted as a concept in 1969. It is widely used as an indicator of the flow of international aid. It refers to material resources given by the governments of richer countries to promote the economic development of poorer countries and the welfare of their people. A government agency of a donor country may disburse such funds to the government of the recipient country or through other agencies. Most ODA is in the form of grants, but in some it is measured as the concessional value of loans offered to the recipient on concessional (low interest) terms.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gross national income (GNI), formerly known as gross national product (GNP), is the total domestic and foreign product claimed by the inhabitants of a country, which consists of of the gross domestic product, plus the incomes of the factors of production from foreign residents, minus the income earned in the domestic economy by non-residents. Comparing GNP to GDP shows the extent to which a country’s GDP represents domestic or international activity. GNI gradually replaced GDP in international statistics. While they are conceptually identical, they are calculated differently. The GNI is the basis for calculating most of the contributions to the budget of the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of the 27 EU member states, only Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway and Germany met the UN target of spending 0.7% of their Gross National Income on aid. The average was just 0.37 percent across the European bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Preliminary figures for aid spending for 2023 are due to be released by the OECD next April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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