Phantom Aid

Aired on June 13, 2007
Last week in Germany, G8 leaders were at it again making big, big promises and more pledges to help Africa. But in all the talk of aid, debt relief, and the famous 7% of GDP, there's an angle that turns the entire issue upside-down.

According to a recent report from U-K based ActionAID, only half of foreign aid gets anywhere near its intended goal of reducing poverty. The rest is what's called phantom aid.

A few examples:

During the famine in Niger three years ago, 90 per cent of the food aid given by Canada HAD to be spent on Canadian food. That's great for our farmers dumping surplus wheat, but bad for the people waiting for it to arrive by ship.

A few years back, the Brits hired Adam Smith International, a right-wing think-tank, to tell the government of Tanzania how to privatize their public water system. Aid money went directly to consultants and never left the country.

Five hundred thousand pounds and two years later, about all that was a pop video.

Two percent of all foreign aid is spent on programs to help refugees settle in rich countries. A worthy cause, and well-spent money, but is that really aid?

Avi talks to Romilly Greenhill, one of the authors of the ActionAID report.

THE FACTS ON PHANTOM AID

Definition:

Aid that is over-priced, mislabeled as aid or does nothing to help poor people.

The Overview:

According to REAL AID, a UK-based NGO, two thirds of donor money is 'phantom aid' that is not genuinely available for poverty reduction in developing countries. Phantom aid includes over-priced technical assistance, tying aid to purchases from the donor countries own firms, high-cost consultants, excessive administrative costs, and double counting of debt relief.

In 2003, international donors gave 69 billion dollars to poor countries. According the REAL AID report only 27 billion was real aid - less than 40%.

Who's the most generous, really?

The top 5 real aid contributors are Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands.

The top 5 contributors of phantom aid are U.S., Greece, France, Spain, Austria.

86 cents of every dollar of American aid is phantom aid, because it is so heavily tied to the purchase of U.S. goods and services.

Canada ranks as the 10th highest contributor of phantom aid. 52% of money it donates is phantom aid.

On average, world's seven largest economies give just .07% of national income in real aid. They would need to increase donations ten times in order to meet the .7% target recommended adopted by the UN in 1970.

The amount of real aid given per person by country:
Luxembourg $357
Canada $31
United States $8

Where the aid goes:

Only 40% of real aid goes to low income countries where three quarters of the population lives in poverty.

Only 1/3 of aid goes to sub-Saharan Africa -- where poverty is deepest and most widespread.

The EC gives three quarters of its aid to middle income countries -- Sub-Saharan African countries do not rank in the top ten recipients.

Three of the four largest recipients of U.S. funding are Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan, at 14% of total aid.

The Shocking Truth:

In 2003, developing countries paid a net $210US million to the rich world.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Phantom
• Aid
• G8
• Africa

[debteliminationpro]

meglio vedere una volta di sentire rendering!

[houseboyJohnnyZu]

This was a really good program.

[pennilesscripple]

that pop song = propaganda