This week the OECD published its 2004 figures for Official Development Assistance (ODA). One way to interpret the numbers is to divide the amount of development aid by the gross national income (GNI) of the country, the latter figure giving a rough indication of the country's wealth.
ODA as a percentage of GNI for OECD countries is shown in the table below. The United Nations has set a goal for ODA of 0.7 percent of GNI. From the table we see that only five out of 22 OECD countries meet or exceed that target.
To read the table, take Norway as an example: ODA accounted for 0.87 percent of GNI, placing Norway in "first place" in terms of generosity. Norway's GNI per capita is US$ 43,350, which is the third highest in the world. (Bermuda has the highest GNI per capita.) Countries marked with an asterisk are G7 members:
| Country | ODA/GNI | Rank 1 | GNI per cap. | Rank 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norway | 0.87 | 1 | 43,350 | 3 |
| Luxembourg | 0.85 | 2 | 43,940 | 2 |
| Denmark | 0.84 | 3 | 33,750 | 8 |
| Sweden | 0.77 | 4 | 28,840 | 11 |
| Netherlands | 0.74 | 5 | 26,310 | 18 |
| Portugal | 0.63 | 6 | 12,130 | 49 |
| France * | 0.42 | 7 | 24,770 | 23 |
| Belgium | 0.41 | 8 | 25,820 | 19 |
| Ireland | 0.39 | 9 | 26,960 | 14 |
| Switzerland | 0.37 | 10 | 39,880 | 4 |
| United Kingdom * | 0.36 | 11 | 28,350 | 12 |
| Finland | 0.35 | 12 | 27,020 | 13 |
| Germany * | 0.28 | 13 | 25,250 | 22 |
| Canada * | 0.26 | 14 | 23,930 | 24 |
| Spain | 0.26 | 15 | 16,990 | 35 |
| Australia | 0.25 | 16 | 21,650 | 27 |
| Austria | 0.24 | 17 | 26,720 | 16 |
| New Zealand | 0.23 | 18 | 15,870 | 40 |
| Greece | 0.23 | 19 | 13,720 | 45 |
| Japan * | 0.19 | 20 | 34,510 | 7 |
| United States * | 0.16 | 21 | 37,610 | 5 |
| Italy * | 0.15 | 22 | 21,560 | 28 |
The ODA/GNI figures are from the OECD (PDF) and the 2003 GNI per capita figures are from the World Bank (PDF).
It's interesting to note that Portugal almost meets the U.N. goal of 0.7 percent, although it is 49th in terms of GNI per capita. At the other end of the spectrum, the U.S., with the fifth highest GNI per capita, is near the bottom in terms of aid as a percentage of GNI.
Note that the G7 countries tend to be in the lower half of the table. The OECD document confirms this: The average ODA/GNI ratio for the G7 countries is 0.22 percent, while for the remaining OECD countries it is 0.45 percent. A country's generosity cannot necessarily be predicted based on its wealth.
