AID STILL LAGS

A target set in the 1970s for aid to developing countries has still not been met by the majority of donor countries. When David Cameron visited Pakistan earlier this week to announce a major new educational aid programme there he made a point of saying that many people in Britain think the money would be better spent at home.

Was that political cover with the May local elections in mind or a warning that the money should be spent transparently for its stated purposes? In principle Mr Cameron's record on development aid is good; exceptionally, he ring-fenced it against George Osborne's budget depredations and he has confirmed Britain's earlier commitment to spend O.7 per cent of Gross National Income by 2013. That 0.7 per cent figure was set more than thirty years ago by the United Nations yet this week's analysis from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development shows that only a handful of mainly Scandinavian countries have achieved it, with Norway leading at 1.1 per cent. The United States which claims the world's biggest aid programme spends only 0.21 percent of its GNI on it. Currently Britain's aid is 0.56 per cent of GNI, while Spain's is 0.43 and Germany's a disappointing 0.38. Development aid may never be a vote-winner but it is a duty that rich countries owe to the poor ones.