In June 1993, the first annual Reality of Aid was published – just one year on from the Earth Summit in Rio. It made for gloomy reading:

• the already weak consensus among governments in Rio about the need for poverty reduction and sustainable development was not being met by action
• aid was overwhelmingly shaped by political, commercial, economic and historical considerations – not poverty-focus
• many pressures on aid budgets were being intensified by recession
• the needs of refugees and increased demand for humanitarian relief were reducing the amount of assistance available to the one-fifth of the world's population living in absolute poverty.

It wasn't all bad news though. Donors were starting to:

• take steps to increase their focus on sustainable poverty reduction in the wake of the World Bank's 1990 World Development Report
• look more carefully at the role of women in development
• work more effectively with NGOs.

Other Reality of Aid

Reality of Aid 2002
Reality Check 2001
Reality of Aid 2000
Reality of Aid 1998/1999
Reality of Aid 1997/1998
Reality of Aid 1996
Reality of Aid 1995
Reality of Aid 1994
Reality of Aid 1993
Reality of Aid home

External links

Visit the Reality of Aid project site – Reality of Aid reports since 2002 – Reality Checks since 2002

Visit the Global Humanitarian Assistance site – our independent project to monitors aid flows