From Africa Recovery, Vol.12#1 (August 1998), Briefs page
Overall disbursements of development assistance by the largest donor countries have continued their downward trend of recent years, falling from $55.4 bn in 1996 to $47.2 in 1997, according to preliminary figures released in June by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The data highlight the aid performances of the 21 member countries of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), but figures are not yet available according to geographical destination (in 1996 sub-Saharan Africa received $9.9 bn from the DAC countries, or 58 per cent of the region's total aid receipts).
There was a decline in official development assistance (ODA) from most of the Group of Seven (G7), the largest industrial powers, with only Canada and Japan increasing their ODA in real terms. Expressed as a percentage of gross national product (GNP), aid from the US fell to its lowest level ever, 0.08 per cent, although the country still remained the world's third largest donor, giving $6.2 bn, down from $9.4 bn the year before. Japan ($9.4 bn) and France ($6.3 bn) were the largest donors in 1997. Aid from the G7 countries, as a group, represented only 0.19 per cent of their collective GNP, compared with 0.45 per cent for other DAC countries. Just four DAC countries -- Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands -- maintained their ODA above the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GNP (see graph).
The OECD notes that the 14.2 per cent decline in overall ODA can be attributed partly to falls in the exchange rates of other national currencies against the US dollar and to Israel's progression from DAC's "developing country" category. Taking these factors into account, the decline in ODA in real terms was 3.2 per cent. The OECD described this as a "disturbing trend," running counter not only to the improvements in the DAC countries' economic and budgetary situations, but also to their stated policy goals.
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