Finland used EUR 935 million on official development assistance in 2017

NordenBladet —  Finland used EUR 935 million on official development assistance (ODA) in 2017. This represented 0.41 per cent of Finland’s gross national income. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) today published preliminary data on official development assistance for 2017.

Finland’s expenditure counted as ODA and its share of gross national income decreased in 2017 compared with the previous year. The total expenditure in 2017 was EUR 21 million less than in 2016. The share of ODA of gross national income decreased from 0.44 per cent to 0.41 per cent. Measured with the percentage of ODA of gross national income, Finland ranked ninth among the EU countries.

Expenditure and its percentage of gross national income decreased in Finland because of a lower amount of appropriations available. In addition, expenditure on the reception of refugees counted as ODA decreased: in 2017 it amounted to EUR 69 million, a decrease of EUR 49 million (42 per cent) from the previous year. On the other hand, financial investments counted as ODA increased the total payments by EUR 68 million compared with the previous year.

A significant proportion of Finland’s ODA funding went through the EU and other multilateral organisations, such as the UN and the World Bank Group. For example, Finland’s share of the EU’s ODA budget was EUR 130 million, and EUR 60 million of the European Development Fund.  A total of EUR 94 million was allocated to humanitarian aid in 2017, of which EUR 39 million was bilateral aid. Finland’s main bilateral partners in 2017 were (EUR million) Afghanistan (18), Nepal (17), Ethiopia (17) and Mozambique (14).

The EU’s official development assistance remained unchanged
According to the OECD statistics, foreign aid provided by official donors totalled EUR 130 billion in 2017. ODA from members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) equalled 0.31% of their combined gross national income, a slight fall from 0.32% in 2016.

Public ODA payments of the EU member states totalled EUR 73.4 billion in 2016. In the EU countries, payments were roughly on a par with the previous year.

The major ODA funders were the United States, Germany, the UK, Japan and France. Of the members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), countries achieving the UN’s target to raise the level of ODA to at least 0.7 per cent of gross national income included, as usual, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg and the UK. Of the other funders, Turkey (0.95 per cent) and United Arab Emirates (1.31 per cent) achieved the target.

ODA payments increased in 11 OECD countries. France, Italy, Japan and Sweden increased their payments the most. The amount of assistance, on the other hand, decreased in 18 member countries compared with the previous year. This is mainly explained by the decreased number of refugees coming to Europe and, consequently, a decreased amount of refugee-related expenditure.

Published originally in Finnish on 9 April 2018

Source: Finland.ee
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