There is no money for development aid for refugees from Ukraine

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In 2022, Switzerland spent just 0.4 percent of gross domestic product on development aid – an international agreement with the OECD requires 0.7 percent. A position paper from aid organization Caritas now accuses Switzerland of doing too little.

With a total of CHF 4.27 billion, Switzerland spent nearly CHF 699 million more on official development assistance (ODA) last year than in the previous year. But due to the war in Ukraine, these funds were distributed differently.

For refugees instead of the poorest

The reason for this is the costs caused by the more than 80,000 Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland. The APD share for domestic asylum expenditure increased from 0.05 percent in 2021 to almost 0.16 percent of gross domestic product in 2022. This corresponds to an additional expenditure of more than 750 million euros. The bottom line is that, despite extra expenditure, less money went to aid projects abroad.

Since the outbreak of the corona pandemic more than three years ago, global poverty has increased again for the first time since 1990. It is no longer easy to keep up with the increasing number of crises. As so often, the world’s poorest are hit hardest – this is illustrated by the sad example of Ethiopia.

Civil war, drought, inflation

Just a few years ago, Ethiopia was considered a land of hope. The developments of the last decades gave hope that global poverty could be brought under control by 2030 – but now it is going downhill again.

Here, too, the pandemic has left its mark. Then rising inflation and one of the worst droughts in history caused problems. And if that wasn’t enough, a bloody civil war broke out in the north of the country. These developments threaten to erase in a very short time the advances of the last decades.

Above all, high inflation is making aid payments made available by the international community less and less effective. In addition, there is a decrease in funds due to other crises – mainly: the war in Ukraine.

1000 dollars a year

About 120 million people live in Ethiopia. Per capita income is less than $1,000 per year. At the same time, the infant mortality rate is more than 15 times higher than in Switzerland. And only about half of the population has access to running water and electricity.

And precisely: now part of the Western aid money is also missing in Ethiopia. Caritas is therefore demanding more money from Switzerland for development aid abroad. (sq)

Source:Blick