The countries of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America got 53.1 billion dollars last year in official development assistance (ODA), down from 56.4 billion dollars they received in 1999 .

A special committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said, despite a strong overall growth last year, aid as a proportion of the 23-member DAC's combined GNP had declined from 0.24 percent in 1999 to 0.22 percent, thus returning to the 1997 level.

The members of the Development Assistance Committee are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Commission.

The ODA/GNP ratio last year was in stark contrast to the United Nations target of 0.7 percent adopted by the world body's General Assembly in 1970. Since then, only a handful of countries have achieved the goal. These, the OECD said in a news release were: Denmark (1.06 percent), Netherlands ((0.82 percent), Sweden (0.81 percent), Norway (0.80 percent) and Luxembourg (0.7 percent).

Also known as the rich nations' club, the OECD said that ODA by the countries of the Development Assistance Committee in real terms had fallen ''slightly in 2000 - by 1.6 percent''. In current prices and exchange rates, the total net ODA flows registered a fall of 6.0 percent.

''But most of this drop was due to lower exchange rates for most currencies against the United States dollar,'' the OECD said.

Explaining the decline in ODA, the OECD said, two special factors were responsible. One of these was a change in the list of countries eligible to receive ODA. Adjusting for these changes, total ODA fell by just 0.2 percent at constant prices and exchange rates.

Another highlight of 2000: Japan's aid was 2.3 billion dollars lower than in 1999, when it included exceptional contributions to the Asian Development Bank in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.

The OECD pointed out that 15 of the DAC member countries reported a rise in ODA in real terms in 2000. For 12 of these, the increase in ODA equalled or outpaced their economic growth.

Luxembourg reached for the first time, the United Nations' 0.7 percent target for ODA as a proportion of GNP, joining Denmark, which reached its highest ODA/GNP ratio ever recorded, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden who continue to surpass this target.

No other countries exceeded the average country effort of 0.39 percent of GNP.

Aid from the United Kingdom rose by 35.6 percent in real terms, more than compensating for the 10.6 percent fall last year, with the rebound due to the timing of its multilateral contributions and its commitment to an increased budget for aid. Belgium (21.7 percent), Greece (28.7 percent), the Netherlands (10.0 percent) and Sweden (22.3 percent) also increased their aid substantially.

Aid disbursements by the European Commission rose in real terms by 12.6 percent.

Total aid from the non-G7 DAC countries increased by 8.3 percent in real terms and accounted for 26 percent of DAC members' ODA, compared with their 12 percent share of DAC GNP.

Total aid from G7 countries - Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Canada - fell by 4.8 percent in real terms, because of the exceptional fall in Japan's aid, combined with a fall in aid from France.

According to the OECD, the decline in French aid was due mainly to the fact that aid to French Polynesia and New Caledonia is no longer counted as ODA, and a fall in aid from Italy, due to the timing of its payments to multilateral agencies.

Among the other G7 countries, Germany's ODA was up from 0.26 percent to 0.27 percent, Canada's fell slightly.

OECD published the aid figures two days ahead of a meeting of the DAC Apr. 25-26 in Paris.

Last Friday, the OECD pointed out that one person in five across the globe still lives on less than one dollar a day despite the economic boom or rapid growth in many parts of the world.

Poverty reduction will, therefore, top the agenda, according to OECD officials in Paris and the German Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development in Bonn. Known as a High Level Meeting of the DAC, it will also discuss the coherence of their policies impacting on developing countries.

Another important issue on which the DAC members have until now failed to reach a consensus is untying aid to the developing nations in order to enable them to buy machinery and equipment in a country other than the one providing the funds.

###