Money given or lent on concessional terms to
developing countries or spent on maintaining
agencies for this purpose. In the late 1980s
official aid from governments of richer
nations amounted to $45-60 billion annually
whereas voluntary organizations in the West
received about $2.4 billion a year for the
Third World. The World Bank is the largest
dispenser of aid. All industrialized United
Nations (UN) member countries devote a
proportion of their gross national product to
aid, ranging from 0.21% (Austria) to 1.2%
(Norway) (1986 figures). Each country spends
more than half this contribution on direct
bilateral assistance to countries with which
they have historical or military links or
hope to encourage trade. The rest goes to
international organizations such as UN and
World Bank agencies, which distribute aid
multilaterally. The UK development-aid budget
in 1987 was 0.28% of GNP, with India and
Kenya among the principal beneficiaries. In
1986 it spent 0.33% of GNP, or .75 billion,
of which the European Development Fund (an
arm of the European Community) received 79
million and the International Development
Association (an arm of the World Bank) 133.8
million. The Overseas Development
Administration is the department of the
Foreign Office that handles bilateral aid.
The combined overseas development aid of all
EC member countries is less than the sum ($20
billion) the EC spends every year on storing
surplus food produced by European farmers. In
1986, the US development-aid budget was 0.23%
of GNP, or $9.784 billion, with Israel($3 bn)
and Egypt($2.1 bn) among the principal
beneficiaries. Turkey recieves$610 m,
Pakistan $490 m, and the Philippines $360 m.
The United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) is the State Department
body responsible for bilateral aid. The USA
is the largest contributor to, and thus the
most powerful member of, the International
Development Association.