London summit is expected to focus attention and boost donations to efforts to combat sexual violence in conflict zones
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The United States was the largest government donor to projects aimed at stopping sexual violence in 2012, while the United Kingdom, host of the first summit to address sexual violence in conflict zones, was ninth, a development think-tank said on Tuesday.
The United States donated $114.5 million to projects linked to combating sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in conflict in 2012 while the United Kingdom gave $12.5 million, UK-based Development Initiatives said a report.
Sweden was the second biggest donor to such projects, giving $51.7 million in 2012, Norway was third ($34.3 million), Australia fourth ($29 million) and Canada fifth ($17.7 million).
British Foreign Minister William Hague, host of this week’s Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, said on Tuesday that the UK development agency would spend an extra 5 million pounds ($8.4 million) on preventing sexual violence and helping victims.
While the United States was the largest donor in cash terms, its contribution was the fifth biggest as a proportion of its overall development spending at 0.4 percent, the report said.
Ireland was the sixth biggest cash donor in 2012, giving $14.5 million, but that was 2.7 percent of its total development spending, by far the highest percentage of any donor, the report said. Most donors give a tiny percentage of overall development funding to SGBV-related projects, the report added.
WHO RECEIVES THE FUNDING?
The Democratic Republic of Congo was easily the biggest recipient of funding for such projects in 2012, receiving $39.4 million, followed by Uganda ($15.4 million), Colombia ($15.1 million), El Salvador ($13.4 million) and Zambia (13.1 million).
The high level of funding for SGBV-related projects in the DRC “is likely to reflect the depth of the issue faced by the country and the media attention it has received,” the report said.
El Salvador was the fourth biggest recipient of overseas aid for these projects, but this sum made up 4.5 percent of all overseas aid it obtained, the highest proportion of any aid recipient.
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