What percentage does the UK spend on foreign aid? Come one, give it a guess, any percentage from 0-100…

In the US, most citizens assume that the state donates 20-24% of its gross domestic income (GDI), which is a basic measure of a country's overall financial economic performance. And I bet some of you guessed it was about the same for the UK too…but it’s not. In fact, it’s far, very far, from this.

If you heard the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday, 18 November, as she opened the Parliament for its final session before the next election, our highness said, "Draft legislation will be published to make binding my government's commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on international development by 2013." Yes, a whopping 0.7%, how giving of the UK.

Let’s put this into perspective. By promising this amount, the UK has actually fulfilled its commitment that it made at the G8 in Gleneagles in 2005, the promise to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 2013, making it one of the world leaders in providing assistance to people in developing countries. With ONLY 0.7%, I know I’m not alone in trying to understand this… Am I meant to be applauding?

 I still can’t get to grips with the fact that a measly 0.7% makes the UK a world leader in providing foreign aid. But I guess these are the facts we have to deal with, and try and make change where we can.

It’s not all doom and gloom. It’s important to remember that the UK has finally acted on its promise after saying it would 40 years ago. But the battle continues; now we have to put pressure on the UK government to make this promise a law, because we all know a promise is not a promise in the world of politics.

Words: Yumna Martin
Graph: Aid Scores 2006. Source: Center for Global Development