Poverty rising, aid falling: UN summit confronts crisis of global solidarity

Malay Mail

27-06-2025

PARIS, June 28 — The United Nations summit on financing for development gets underway Monday in Seville under a grim cloud: multiple conflicts, humanitarian crises and the shock disengagement of the United States.
Here is an overview of the challenges development aid faces, and changes in funding fortunes:
Aid in general is down
Official development assistance is down for the first time in six years.
The amount granted by 32 wealthy countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union decreased by 7.1 per cent in real terms last year to US$212.1 billion (RM896.9 billion), according to an OECD estimate.
The US remained the top contributor in 2024 with US$63.3 billion, placing them ahead of Germany with US$32.4 billion, followed by Britain (US$18 billion), Japan (US$16.8 billion) and France (US$15.4 billion).
The rankings are likely to change this year after US President Donald Trump's sudden gutting of USAID, the country's main foreign development arm.
That has resulted in the elimination of 83 per cent of USAID programmes, including emergency aid or healthcare access.
Ukraine getting less
Since Russia's invasion in 2022, Ukraine has received significant funding, partly accounted for as humanitarian or development aid.
In 2023, Kyiv was the top recipient country with US$38.9 billion received from OECD members, non-OECD countries, and multilateral organisations.
But in 2024, the trend was down, with aid from OECD countries alone falling 17 per cent.
Africa too
Africa is the region of the world that concentrates the largest portion of international aid: US$68 billion, or a quarter of the global amount for 2023.
However, preliminary figures for 2024 show a decrease in OECD countries' aid to Africa (down 1 per cent) and a more pronounced decline (3 per cent) to the least developed countries — a group of about fifty nations, overwhelmingly African, considered by the UN to be the most vulnerable.
Debt is rising
The total external debt of the group of least developed countries has more than tripled in 15 years, according to UNCTAD, the United Nations body for integrating developing countries into the global economy.
These countries now generally spend more on repaying their external debt than for their education systems.
Extreme poverty spreading
Extreme poverty now affects more than 800 million people, living on less than US$3 per day, according to the World Bank.
After decades of progress, extreme poverty, which is primarily concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, is on the rise again.
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, slower growth, indebtedness, conflicts and the effects of extreme weather are the main factors behind the increase.
Worsening climate risks
The poorest nations also have a growing need for funding to address climate change, as 17 of the 20 countries most vulnerable to global warming are also among the least developed.
These include Chad, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Haiti.
However, a significant portion of the aid intended for adaptation or combating global warming is granted to the poorest in the form of loans rather than donations, exposing them to the risk of falling into a trap of 'climate debt', according to UNCTAD. — AFP