The Dominion Post this morning reports that the government will be increasing foreign aid spending in the next budget by $50 million per year. However, somewhat counterintuitively, this increase is expected to cause "only a marginal lift in aid spending as a percentage of gross national income, to just 0.28 per cent". Given that that's the level it was planned to be at anyway, I'm not sure what's going on - whether there's a real increase and the reporter has muffed it, or whether the government is announcing its existing spending as if it were news (though the numbers don't seem to match there either). I guess we'll find out in the budget next month...
Tools for democracy
Themes:
New Zealand
- Forest & Bird
- Gordon Campbell
- Greater Auckland
- Imagine My Relief
- Imperator Fish
- Kiwipolitico
- Lefthandpalm
- Media Law Journal
- NZ Council for Civil Liberties
- NZ Open Government Blog
- Proactively Open
- Public Address
- Pundit.co.nz
- Reading the Maps
- Republican Movement
- The Apocrypha of Noah
- The Progress Report
Overseas
Friends & Others
Blog Archive:
-
▼
2007
(1328)
-
▼
April
(102)
- New kiwi blog
- Freedom of speech and Anzac Day
- NRT on the radio
- Another indefinite detention
- Last-minute wobbles?
- Losing the war on terror
- Strategic emptiness
- Canada's plan on climate change: increase emissions
- New Fisk
- Signing the lion
- Civil unions in New Hampshire
- Voting to end the war III
- New part-kiwi blog
- Ancient history: the Coalition for Open Government
- Success!
- Fiji: hunting the bloggers
- Something to go to in Auckland
- Some "compromise"
- Carnival of the Liberals
- Lobbying on sedition
- Tony Milne running for Christchurch City Council
- Working together to repeal sedition
- Blog holiday
- For a global democracy
- Still not shooting at anyone
- Aid and the Pacific
- And now, we wait
- Elections
- Elections in Timor-Leste III
- At least we're not racist
- Climate change: the real vanguard
- New Fisk
- Own goal
- Climate change: cooking the books?
- Election funding: the Greens weigh in
- Good news on aid?
- Prisoners have freedom of religion too
- Te Waka decision
- Not serious
- Abandoned
- Climate change: pulling numbers out of their arse
- Nothing to compromise over
- Human rights film festival
- Disowned?
- Election funding: food for thought
- Election funding: enforcement
- Election funding: public funding dead
- Faith-based policy fails again
- Not even social science
- Wasting the bully pulpit
- Nigeria, oil, and terrorism
- Guest Column: The Case Against The Case Against Aid
- Just what we need
- Election funding: freedom of speech
- New Fisk
- Zaoui on Algeria
- Fucking the natural order
- Fiji: demolishing the constitution
- The Herald on sedition
- An example to the Middle East
- Elections in Timor-Leste II
- Out of troops
- The Herald on climate change
- Carnival of the Liberals
- Election funding: broadcast limits
- Religion is not a blank cheque
- Climate change: policy consensus
- New Fisk
- Trouble for Project Hayes
- Climate change: impacts on New Zealand
- New Fisk
- Three week recess
- A small victory in Ethiopia
- Increasing aid?
- An excursion into foodblogging
- Elections in Timor-Leste
- Election funding: the details
- Guest Column: Still Failing the Poor: why New Zeal...
- The obvious solution
- New Fisk
- Sedition: reactions
- Victory for Thomas Yadegary!
- Repealing sedition
- Selwyn loses
- Disclosure
- Good news from Iran
- Now there's a surprise
- A closer look: election funding
- Embarassing and pathetic
- Freed
- No wonder they're pissed
- Submit!
- The G8 have betrayed the world's poor
- No surprises
- Not adopted
- Submit!
- Campaigning for open government
- Better than the alternative
- New Fisk
- Lovecraft meets Dilbert
-
▼
April
(102)
9 comments:
The answer is that $50 million is only a tiny percentage of GDP: it only increases our contribution by .03% of GDP.
I don't think government contributions as a proportion of GDP are a fair or reasonable measure internationally. We rank at the bottom of the OECD economically, and the real issue is whether we are taking responsibility for countries within our region. A lot of non-NZAID assistance is given to our poorer neighbours, and not included--military aid to the Solomons and East Timor, for example.
Simply paying out more money to the Cooks, Niue, and Tonga to somehow make us feel better in the international rankings doesn't achieve anything.
Posted by Insolent Prick : 4/10/2007 12:46:00 PM
The answer is that $50 million is only a tiny percentage of GDP: it only increases our contribution by .03% of GDP.
Except that we're seeing a reported 13% increase in spending measured one way leading to a 4% increase in spending measured another. The numbers just don't add up.
Frequently non-financial assistance is charged to NZAID; for example the use of RNZAF aircraft and police staff in the wake of the 2005 Tsunami came right out of NZAID's budget (I did some poking into this at the time, as I had read reports that some countries charge inflated prices for this sort of aid, rather than actual cost).
Posted by Idiot/Savant : 4/10/2007 01:05:00 PM
look buddy... i don't know who the hell you are, but unless you start swearing, bandying around the phrase "pinko scum" and generally acting completely irrationally i'd prefer if you don't use insolent prick's name.
Posted by Anonymous : 4/10/2007 01:07:00 PM
I thought total official ODA for 06/07 $397 Million:
http://tinyurl.com/yqpmuc
(i.e more than in the newspaper report).
Oh well, it's an increase I guess - just not all one might have hoped for.
The other thing is that GNI will be higher next year. I think this may be why the percentage increase appears so low.
Posted by Terence : 4/10/2007 01:12:00 PM
I haven't seen the different reports of measures, other than to say the baseline ODA contributions have increased by about 100% over the last six years.
Disaster relief, such as the tsunami, comes out of supplementary estimates, rather than core ODA funding. I very much doubt that military contribution to the Solomons, East Timor, and indeed military reconstruction in Afghanistan comes out of the ODA budget.
Fuck you, Che. What the fuck kind of name is "Tibby"? Next you'll be saying your middle name is "Yossarian".
Posted by Insolent Prick : 4/10/2007 01:50:00 PM
Oh – the story I’ve just heard (which I presume is correct) is that all the numbers used in the Dom report are simply those earmarked last year (so it’s not a budget leak or anything). And that the budget could plausibly still contain better news. (Or not, I guess).
Posted by Anonymous : 4/10/2007 02:14:00 PM
IP,
No. Disaster relief is included OECD ODA measures. Military stuff (IIRC) is not.
Posted by Anonymous : 4/10/2007 02:16:00 PM
there you go. much better.
and ps. "tibby" means "ship's cat". my ancestors were whalers in the 1830s.
Posted by Anonymous : 4/10/2007 02:21:00 PM
For anyone who's really interested: some 'military stuff' is included in ODA, though not generally in the NZAID budget. The OECD Development Assistance Committee has rules about what can and can't be counted as aid. Things like peacekeeping activities don't count as ODA, however worthwhile they may be, but reconstruction work carried out by the military (eg by NZ military personnel in Afghanistan) can be counted as ODA.
Posted by Anonymous : 4/10/2007 09:34:00 PM
Post a Comment
(Anonymous comments are enabled).