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De førende donorer af udviklingsbistand i den vestlige samarbejdsorganisation OECD vil samlet set oppe sig med lidt større u-landshjælp i år, men det forudsætter at den britiske regering indfrier sine løfter om ekstra milliarder i bistand, konkluderer australsk universitetsinstitut.

DAKAR, 24 October 2013 (IRIN): Aid from the top 15 global donors – all from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) – is estimated to reach 127 billion US dollar by the end of 2013, reversing the aid declines of the last two years,

This is according to projections from the Australian National University’s Development Policy Centre.

The figues represent a less than one percent increase over 2012, and is mainly due to some donors pursuing (forfølge) the commitment to give 0,7 percent of national income to development aid by 2015, a promise made by 15 European governments in 2005.

The UK has promised to stick to this commitment, agreeing to raise aid from 0,56 percent to 0,7 percent of GNI (bruttonational-indkomsten).

This represents a stunning increase of 3,7 billion dollar.

“One can only speculate [as to why], but… the predominate theory is that UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s commitment to overseas aid is part and parcel of fashioning a new, compassionate brand of conservatism,” said Robin Davies, associate director of the Development Policy Centre and co-author of the report.

“There is, at present, no reason to doubt that they [the UK] will meet its spending target, but programming an additional 3,7 billion dollar in a single year is no mean feat (ingen ringe udfordring),” he continued.

Without this hike from the UK, global aid would probably have fallen by 3 percent over the course of 2013, as most DAC donors reduced their aid, with a few exceptions, including Switzerland, Sweden and Italy.

The US, for example, is expected to have reduced its global aid spending by 1,7 billion dollar in 2013, and the Netherlands by 1,23 billion, following austerity cuts (nedskæringer) at the end of 2012.

Researchers based their aid predictions on what the 15 largest DAC donors have pledged to spend this year, compared to their spending intentions at the same time last year.

These top donors account for around 95 percent of official development assistance.

Non-DAC buffer

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http://www.irinnews.org/report/98995/reversing-development-aid-s-downward-trend