Overseas Aid

HC Deb 27 February 1997 vol 291 cc301-2W

Sir Irvine Patnick

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many countries currently contribute 0.7 per cent. or more of gross domestic product to overseas aid; and if he will make a statement. [17739]

Dr. Liam Fox

Four Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries—Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands—contribute 0.7 per cent. or more of gross national product to overseas development assistance. In 1995, the UK provided 0.28 per cent. of GNP for development assistance-above the average for all donors of 0.27 per cent.

The UK was second only to the Netherlands in total—public and private—resource flows to developing countries, contributing 1.38 per cent. of GNP—ahead of the UN target of 1 per cent.