Humanitarian aid was the biggest sector of development cooperation funds

Press release 66/2016
13.4.2016

Finland used EUR 1.16 billion on official development assistance (ODA) in 2015. Humanitarian aid was the biggest sector, indicates preliminary data on Finland’s development cooperation.

Preliminary data on Finland’s development cooperation statistics for 2015 is ready. Finland’s expenditure counted as ODA totalled EUR 1,164 million, or 0.56 per cent of the country’s gross national income. The corresponding figures for the previous year were EUR 1,232 million and 0.59 per cent of gross national income.

The difficult humanitarian situation in the world was reflected in the allocation of aid. Similar to 2014, humanitarian aid and the prevention of disasters was the sector to which the most development cooperation funds were allocated, EUR 105,7 million.

The next biggest sectors of Finland’s bilateral development cooperation were support for improving the governance of developing countries and the work of non-governmental organisations (10%), agriculture and forestry of developing countries (8%) and education (8%).

Additional statistical data on the allocation of Finland’s ODA is available on the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ website at: http://formin.finland.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=328885&nodeid=49314&contentlan=2&culture=en-US

Refugee-related expenditure increased EU countries’ aid

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has compiled preliminary data on the Member States’ development cooperation for 2015. In all, the ODA of the OECD countries increased by 6.9 per cent to EUR 118,9 billion.

Development cooperation expenditure decreased in six OECD Member States and increased in as many as 22 countries. A major share of the increase in the development cooperation expenditure of the EU countries in particular is attributable to increased costs of receiving asylum seekers. According to the OECD’s rules, part of the costs of receiving asylum seekers is included in development cooperation expenditure. However, Finland and the majority of OECD countries do not pay these costs from their actual development cooperation budgets, even though they are included in total ODA.

The EU countries that are members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee spent an average of 0.47% of their gross national income on development cooperation, and they accounted for 56% of all development aid.

In terms of absolute monetary value, the biggest donors in the EU were Great Britain (EUR 16.9 billion), Germany (EUR 16 billion) and France (EUR 8.3 billion). In proportion to the size of their economies, i.e. gross national income, the biggest donors were Sweden (1.4%), Luxembourg (0.93%), Denmark (0.84%), the Netherlands (0.76%) and Great Britain (0.71%). Finland’s 0.56% share of development aid of gross national income was the sixth-highest in the EU and the seventh-highest of all countries: Norway spent 1,05 per cent of its gross national income on development cooperation.

Further information: Pekka Puustinen, Director General of the Department for Development Policy, tel. +358 295 350 560 and Lotta Karlsson, Director of the Unit for Administrative and Legal Development Cooperation Matters, tel. +358 295 351 932.