UK ODA Increase Of 2% On 2011

The Department for International Development recently published its annual overview of the official UK contribution to international development. It contains the finalised estimates for 2012 and updates the provisional estimates of March 2013. It focuses on Official Development Assistance (ODA), the key international aid measure. The UK is committed to investing 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) on official development assistance, the target originally set in 1970 by the UN General Assembly.

The key statistics concerning Official Development Assistance (ODA) in this publication include the UK’s ODA/GNI ratio for 2012 was 0.56 per cent, which is the same level as 2011. This estimate is unchanged from the provisional release published in March 2013.

In 2012 the UK reported £8,766m as Official Development Assistance (ODA), an increase of £137m (2 per cent) on 2011 levels making it the 2nd largest OECD-DAC Donor in terms of volume. The UK reported £5,496m of ODA as Net Bilateral in 2012, an increase of £210m (4 per cent) on 2011 levels and £3,270m of ODA as Net Multilateral, a decrease of £73m (2 per cent) on 2011 levels.

The publication also covers regional and sectoral breakdowns of ODA. The African region received the largest amount of UK Net Bilateral ODA, £2,174m in 2012, an increase of 2 per cent on 2011 levels. The top three recipients of UK Net Bilateral ODA in 2012 were India (£292m) Afghanistan (£274m), and Ethiopia (£266m). The health sector received the largest amount of UK Net Bilateral ODA, £1,076m in 2012.

The Department for International Development’s (DFID) ODA spend was £7,593m, 87 per cent of total UK ODA in 2012. Other UK Government Departments and Sources of UK ODA spend was £1,173m, accounting for the remaining 13 per cent of total UK ODA in 2012.

Global Peace Index 2010

The world is less peaceful than last year is the sad news from the Institute for Economics and Peace Global Peace Index (GPI) 2010. The GPI monitors domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarisation in 149 countries. It recorded increases in several indicators including the likelihood of demonstrations and perceptions of criminality. Some indicators seemed to link with the recent global economic downturn.

It is the fourth edition of the GPI and it has increased to rank 149 independent states. An international panel selected 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators to make up the index. The experts included academics, business people, philanthropists and leading international pacifists. The country most at peace was New Zealand followed by Iceland and Japan in third. Iraq was the most war torn country followed by Somalia and Afghanistan.

The GPI results were correlated with several economic and societal indicators to contribute an understanding of what factors help to create and sustain peace in the world. The GPI is collated and calculated by the Economist Intelligence Unit who co-operated in writing the report.