Foreign aid spending by 24 countries, including the US, UK and European Union, fell by more than $15bn last year – before the impact of huge cuts by Donald Trump have taken effect. Nick Ferris reports

International aid fell in 2024 for first time in five years – and is expected to get worse Foreign aid spending by 24 countries, including the US, UK and European Union, fell by more than $15bn last year – before the impact of huge cuts by Donald Trump have taken effect.

Spending on international aid by wealthy countries fell in 2024 for the first time in five years, data shows.

Funding from the Development Assistance Committee – a group of 24 territories that includes the US, UK, Australia, and EU member-states – fell by 7.1 per cent year-on-year, down $15.7bn, preliminary 2024 data published by the OECD on Wednesday shows.

This trend is expected to increase significantly as the US cuts huge swathes of its aid spending and other countries, including the UK, redirect aid money into other areas including defence

    • huppakee@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      14 hours ago

      Official development assistance (ODA) is government aid that promotes and specifically targets the economic development and welfare of developing countries.

      DAC member countries’ bilateral ODA to Ukraine fell by 16.7% in 2024 compared to 2023 and amounted to USD 15.5 billion, representing 7.4% of total net ODA (a decline from 8.0% in 2023). Contributions from EU Institutions outpaced those from DAC member countries combined.

      The part that is not given in the form of weapons is counted, but looking at the data I don’t think the aid offered to Ukraine is a factor in the overall decline.

      Edit: I quoted this from https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/official-development-assistance-oda.html not from the article

          • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            54 minutes ago

            Instead of aid to developing countries, the headline says international aid.
            Aid to Ukraine is international aid, but Ukraine is not a developing country.

            Also it’s only measured on one organisation, so there os no way to judge whether aid through other channels have compensated.
            Basically it’s a trash headline, which I detected, so I lost interest in reading the article, except now I read it write this reply.

            The article even states that the drop is probably due to an increase in aid to Ukraine. So the headline is decidedly misleading.

            • huppakee@lemm.eeOPEnglish
              11·
              42 minutes ago

              Instead of aid to developing countries, the headline says international aid. Aid to Ukraine is international aid, but Ukraine is not a developing country.

              Yes, the headline says international aid because it is not only aid to developing countries.

              The article explicitly mentions it is because governments choose to spend their money internally, have you even read it??

              • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                28 minutes ago

                Aid to Ukraine fell by 16.7 per cent year-on-year to $15.5bn,

                This is decidedly false:

                https://www.statista.com/statistics/1303432/total-bilateral-aid-to-ukraine/

                USA alone helped Ukraine with 114 billion USD over 3 years. So there is no way Ukraine only received 15.5 billion in 2024.

                The line should possibly read: HUMANITARIAN Aid to Ukraine fell by 16.7 per cent year-on-year to $15.5bn,
                Which is completely different.

                The article is so poorly written it’s basically misinformation.

  • Lembot_0002@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    21 hours ago

    Well, there are more important issues in our times when the USA has gone crazy and Russia is in an aggressive state.