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Aid overview
Approximately US$600 billion flow from Southern countries to Northern ones each year. Official Development Assistance is an important part of trying to ensure more money flows the other way. Rich country governments have pledged to increase aid to 0.7% of their Gross National Income. They have also agreed to improve the delivery of aid to ensure that more of it reaches the world’s poorest people. European governments have always been major aid contributors, and the proportion of aid provided by Europeans is growing ever larger (up to 60% of world’s aid).
Unfortunately too much official aid simply never reaches impoverished people; too much is channeled for geo-political ends, spent on northern consultancy services or weighed down by donor demands. Uncoordinated donor activities burden developing country bureaucracies with multiple missions, reporting demands and strategies. Some initiatives give Southern governments and civil society groups the ability to decide how aid money should be spent. But foreign agencies with money still wield significant power over national governments with cash flow problems. Despite widespread recognition of the benefits of participation and openness in defining public policies, there is still little room for public debate of what are often presented as the “right policies” for development. Intrusive and unrealistic conditions on aid are still straight-jacketing developing countries.