Foreign aid: who gives the most, and where does it go?

Rich countries are giving more in foreign aid than ever before. But which countries are the most generous?

Rich countries are giving away more in aid than at any other time on record. In 2016 more than $140bn was distributed around the world.

According to the latest breakdown in 2015 America gave the most money away - nearly $31bn to at least 40 countries and organisations such as the world bank. This included $770m to Pakistan and $250m to Mexico. This may sound generous but the United States has the largest economy in the world.

American foreign aid spending in 2015 was only 0.17% of the gross national income. Far less than other rich countries.

Sweden and Norway are the biggest givers, donating over 1% of their gross national income to foreign aid. The biggest receivers of aid in 2015 were Afghanistan, India, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Indonesia.

Afghanistan received $3.8bn and India $3.1bn. Despite being the second biggest economy in the world, China received $1.5bn in development aid in 2015. This included around $750m from Germany and $67m from Britain.

The total amount of foreign aid is at an all time high - up 9% in 2016. This is largely down to the generosity of six countries who meet or exceed the United Nations foreign aid target, donating more than 0.7% of gross national income.

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[Linx_]

The sad thing is most of the money gets lost due to corruption in these contries

[pikachupakau]

Most of the aid falls on corrupted hands.

[derrickpeterjordan]

So weird how every country helping another, have MANY people within their own country in need of aid.

[sandyopenchosky]

Just stop all aid. Keep the money here we need it more. What about our vets and homeless. Let's help our people first.

[DrROB-ocvi]

The amount of money taken from India by Uk during colonial time is nothing compared to current aid from U.K.

[ChickenSpeed]

ok this is just a thought but what if the us stopped giving foreign aid

[flyingface]

haha "aid", more like soft power investment

[surge]

This so called generous countries use aid money as influence or for political/geo political reasons.

[adnanchinisi]

Did they highlight Greece as being rich... Well these people do have a great sense of humor

[harambenights]

Also, because the US military is so large, it does the majority of the work as far keeping ocean trade safe and preventing aggression from countries such as Russia. This enables small countries like Norway to not have to invest very much in their own military strength.

[el-hajjmalikel-shabazz]

Don't be fooled by Aid. Institutions like the IMF and World Bank give what is known as "Structural Adjustment Programs" to countries in dire economic conditions in return that the country changes their fiscal policies i.e. Privatise Banks and Hospitals etc. Sadly we saw this in Malawi; "Aid" was given to them in return for a change in Malawian Policies which of course benefited these "Bretton Woods Institutions" e.g. IMF but as soon as Malawi backtracked on their promise to change their policies their Aid was cut by the IMF. The country is now one of the poorest in Africa. Sad stuff eh

[Mr.Riffian]

The rich countries do not give any penny away.
On the contrary, they are buying goodwill and possibilities for their industry to get involved in the local market and economy.

Sadly most of the money ends in the pockets of dictators like the king of Morocco Mohammed the sixth.

[yehiaamr]

Most aid is for military arms support or other products to be purchased from doner countries. A large part pays the salaries of aid employees from the doner country located in those countries. So most of it comes back to doner country

[pitthepig]

This video barely talks about where the money goes!

[yeshwanthmadineni]

It has been handy to maintain political influence since the beginning. It is strange that China and India give away more in foreign aid than they receive from the high income countries.

[manjilatamapo]

ENGLAND GIVES LOTS OF AID TO NEPAL.BUT NEPAL IS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS VIDEO.

[maxalba]

'The dictators handbook' gives great insight into the way aid works, and why it is economically and political beneficial to the country giving it. Definite recommended read for all those that dont agree with giving aid.

[arimax]

this is so confusing!what I learned from business school tells me that this is due to international no such thing as ''free'' and giveaway aid!! The USA has benefited from these countries and surely is just a pay off..

[farisdurrani]

The map of Indonesia wasn't extremely accurate, unless if the development aid was only given to those areas

[lIlIlIlIlIlIlI-IlIlIlIlIlIlIII]

I'm from Ethiopia and foreign aid may help a little but those who give it take more in different ways than they gave