By Luca de Fraia. On June 28-29, the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness gathered in Paris for its last meeting, but gave birth to the new Global Partnership for Effective Development...
As EU leaders gather for yet another summit discussing the economic crisis inside of the EU borders, they are still failing to give 0.7% of their Gross National Income towards development aid, to...
9 EU countries beat aid targets, but Germany and France missed the mark in 2011. Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Malta (the only EU 12 country), Belgium, Finland and Ireland all met their targets. Germany and France however are way off track, both giving less than 0.5% of their GNI to development aid.
Aid budget cuts are becoming a major trend, with €500 million slashed from total EU aid spending in 2011. 11 EU countries cut their aid levels last year, with 9 countries planning further cuts in 2012. Spain and Italy are likely to face the biggest cuts; 53% and 38% respectively. Total EU aid amounted to €53billion in 2011.
14% of EU aid or €7.35 billion didn’t reach developing countries in 2011. Genuine Aid, that represents a real transfer of resources to developing countries, is highest from Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK and Ireland.
EU Development Ministers signed off this week on new plans to step up the EU’s role in poverty eradication, which had been in the pipeline for some eighteen months. Throughout this time ActionAid and...
On 7th of December the European Commission presented its proposal on how it will spend €62 billion on aid between 2014 and 2020.This represents a slight increase in the EU’s development budget and is...
Today was my first day working for ActionAid and I arrived just in time to attend the launch of the European Commission’s new development policy – the so-called ‘Agenda for Change’. The event...
A new EU development policy unveiled today reveals an alarming shift, moving EU aid away from supporting poor people to end poverty and towards promoting economic growth.
Development aid is sometimes criticised as a waste of money and is an easy target for governments’ spending cuts. But if spent properly, it can make a real change to the lives of many people in poor...
Aid dependency among 54 of the world’s poorest countries has declined by a third over the last decade, according to a new report from ActionAid. The Real Aid 3 report reveals that since 2006 there has been an increase in good quality aid – real aid – from 51 per cent to 55 per cent.
The kind of aid that helps support dramatic decreases in aid dependence is what ActionAid calls real aid – that’s aid which empowers poor women and men to realise their rights, and reduces inequality...
