Rich Western countries spend up to 25 times as much on defence as they do on overseas aid and have increased their assistance to the poorest African countries by just $3 a head since 1990, according to United Nations figures.
Research to be unveiled in the UN’s human development report later this year shows that every country in Western Europe and North America has a bigger military budget than overseas development budget, with the biggest disparities in the United States and Britain.
Although the United Kingdom has increased its aid budget in recent years, the UN data reveals that, for every £1 spent on development, £8 is spent on defence.
In the US, 1% — one cent in every dollar — goes on aid, compared with the 25% of the budget that is spent by the Pentagon.
The figures emerged as development campaigners stepped up their pressure on the G8 to deliver an immediate $50-billion increase in aid at its summit.
”G8 leaders are hiding behind each other and are stuck in a swamp of inertia,” said Jo Leadbeater, head of advocacy at Oxfam. ”We need to see leadership from countries such as Canada in order to get a breakthrough on aid. If this doesn’t happen, the UN’s plan to halve world poverty by 2015 lies in tatters. This is the first time in history that the text of the final G8 communiqué has been up for grabs this late in the game. There’s still a lot to play for, but so far no sign of the breakthrough.”
War on Want said the deal on offer this week would provide only 20% of the extra aid needed for Africa.
John Hilary, director of campaigns and policy, said: ”The paltry deal on the table at Gleneagles is an insult to poor people the world over. G8 governments have failed to listen to the 225 000 protesters who came out on to the streets of Edinburgh to call for a response to the crisis of global poverty. If this is the best they can come up with, the G8 clearly has nothing to offer the world’s poor.”
Defence spending in the US and the UK has increased in recent years as a result of the war in Iraq, taking the total in the G7 (the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada) to more than $660-billion a year — 10 times the spending on aid in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the poor countries of Europe.
The UN figures show that, while Germany and Italy cut defence spending from 2000 to 2004 and France held it steady, spending on defence in the UK rose by $92 per head to $790 a year. In the US, there was a sharper increase of $379 per head to $1 549.
The spending on defence contrasted with separate UN figures showing how little of the increase in prosperity seen in the West since 1990 has found its way to sub-Saharan Africa.
Since 1990, according to the UN figures, per capita increases in the G7 nations have averaged $5 770.
The US has enjoyed the biggest increase in per capita incomes — from just over $30 000 a year to just over $37 500 a year — while recession-affected Japan has seen the smallest increase of $3 400 a year.
Over the same period, the UN figures show that spending per head among G7 countries on sub-Saharan Africa has risen by $3 — from $13 a year in 1990 to $16 a year in 2003. — Â