The United Nations has set a target for developed countries to donate 0.7% of their GDP to poor nations. However, the average figure is just 0.33% for the developed world and according to a recent OECD report many nations are set to miss this target if they fail to boost aid spending significantly. Indeed, only a few countries – Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – are currently meeting this target.
West set to fail aid targets, OECD says Guardian(22/2/07)
Questions
| 1. | Explain what is meant by ‘official development assistance’. |
| 2. | Discuss the likely impact on the developing world of a failure to meet the aid targets set by the United Nations. |
| 3. | Assess the extent to which developing countries are likely to gain from globalisation. |