ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Net disbursements of official development assistance (ODA) in 2008 increased 10.2 per cent to $119.8 billion, the highest dollar figure ever recorded. That is equivalent to 0.30 per cent of developed countries’ combined national income. Expenditures on bilateral aid programmes and projects have been on the rise in recent years and increased 12.5 per cent in real terms between 2007 and 2008 — an indication that donors are scaling up their core aid programmes (UN MDG Report 2009).
- For the average developing country, the burden of servicing external debt fell from almost 13 per cent of export earnings in 2000 to 7 per cent in 2006, creating a more favourable environment for investment and allowing them to allocate more resources to reducing poverty (UN MDG Report 2009).
- Over $117 billion of unpayable debt has been written off through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (DFDI).
- 35 countries are currently receiving debt relief, with 5 still able to qualify when they meet the necessary conditions. Annual spending on anti-poverty programs increased from approximately $6 billion in 1999 to almost $27 billion in 2008 (DFID).
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CHALLENGES:
- Total aid remains well below the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income. In 2008, the only countries to reach or exceed the UN target were Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden (UN MDG Report 2009).
- In general, aid is targeted to the poorest countries (that is, those countries classified as ‘least developed’ or as low- or lower-middle income). The 49 least developed countries (LDCs) receive only about a third of all aid flows (UN MDG Report 2009).
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