Development aid shrinks from record in 2006: OECD

Paris, Apr 4: Official development aid supplied by the world's wealthiest donor countries slid 5.1 per cent last year from a record in 2005, the peak year for write-offs of debt owed by Iraq and Nigeria, the OECD said.

Aid from the 22 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development slid to 103.9 billion dollars from 106.8 billion dollars, it said, adding that a pledge to double the fund flow to Africa by the end of the decade thus remained a challenge.

That pledge was made in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005 when British Prime Minister Tony Blair hosted a meeting with other leaders of the Group of Eight the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Russia.

"Aid to sub-Saharan Africa, excluding debt relief, was static in 2006, leaving a challenge to meet the Gleneagles G8 summit commitment to double aid to Africa by 2010," the OECD said in a statement yesterday.

Excluding debt relief for Nigeria, aid to sub-Saharan Africa rose just two percent in 2006, it said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country chairs the G8 this year and hosts a summit in June, has promised to continue the campaign against disease and poverty in Africa.

G8 countries are the wealthiest of the wealthy 22 countries whose aid transfers are tracked at OECD headquarters in Paris.

US aid fell 20 per cent in 2006 but that was after a write-off in 2005 of US debt claims on Iraq, the statement said.

US aid to sub-Saharan Africa hit a record high of 1.4 billion dollars in 2006, of which 600 million dollars was in Nigerian debt relief, the rest going to the war on AIDS and Malaria.

Ireland topped a list of 10 countries where spending on aid rose, up 33.7 per cent, followed by Spain, Sweden and Britain among countries showing double-digit increases.

Development aid is expected to fall slightly again in 2007 as debt relief for Nigeria and Iraq tapers off but other types of aid should then rise as donors start to meet more recent pledges, the statement added.

Reuters