Here are some of the things we noted about the reality of aid in 2000:

• there is some progress on aid policy
• the reality of poverty is an indictment of the global order
• meeting basic needs is moving slowly up the agenda
• gender equality is no longer 'an optional extra'
• some positive steps have been taken on measurement and accountability
• technical cooperation means that ODA is still in 'expert hands'
• the increased attention to sectoral approaches is encouraging
• aid spending is not focused on the poorest countries
• there is closer integration of aid and other government policy
• inadequate action on debt underlines lack of priority to poverty.

Read Executive summary

Read Foreword by Elin Enge

Overview: aid trends

Read Towards the new millennium by Judith Randel and Tony German

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

In 1998, the 21 OECD donors gave:

• US$ 51 521 million
• 0.23% of their total GNP
• 0.59% of combined total government expenditure
• US$63 per person.

Is it going up or down?

• Aid rose by US$3197 million, a real terms rise of 8.9%
• Eight donors reduced the proportion of GNP allocated to development assistance and ten donors increased it
• Private flows amounted to US$100.2 billion, a decrease of US$142.3 billion over 1997, but still nearly twice the volume of ODA.

What proportion of bilateral aid goes to basic education and basic health?

In 1997, 17 countries reported on these. Their combined commitments were:

• basic education, 1.44% of combined bilateral ODA – an average country effort of 2.1%
• basic health, 1.72% of bilateral ODA – an average country effort of 2.9%
• population and reproductive health, 1.24% of bilateral ODA – an average country effort of 0.8%.

How much goes to the poorest countries?

• 50.7% of DAC ODA was spent in low income countries (LICs) with an average per capita income of US$2 a day.

How much OECD aid is tied to purchases from the donor country?

• 26.5%of DAC bilateral aidis given on the condition it is used only to purchase goods and services from the donor country. This excludes technical cooperation, which is mostly tied to services from the donor and which amounted to 40% of bilateral ODA.

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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
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