Two nations debunk the myth of Western donors handing out aid to the rest of the world
LONDON (AlertNet) - Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA), a group that monitors international aid flows, has published profiles on 20 countries that are donors or recipients of humanitarian funding, including two that both give and receive it.
Here are some figures taken from the GHA profiles on those two nations, India and Turkey:
INDIA
* In 2009, India gave humanitarian aid to only four countries: Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the Palestinian territories and Tajikistan. Afghanistan received the lion's share - $10.4 million, or 73.2 percent of India's total humanitarian aid.
* Between 2000 and 2009, India reported humanitarian assistance to 10 countries totalling $65.4 million. The largest sum, $23 million, was disbursed to Sri Lanka in 2005 for relief and rehabilitation projects following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
* In 2008, India received $52 million in humanitarian aid and gave $5 million in humanitarian aid.
* In 2003, India declared that only five countries (Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Russia) and the European Union (EU) could continue providing direct assistance. Projects funded by other bilateral donors could only be channelled through multilateral mechanisms.
TURKEY
* In 2008, Turkey received $12 million in humanitarian aid and gave $32 million in humanitarian aid.
* Over the last 10 years it has been both an aid recipient and an aid donor.
* In 2008, it gave $780 million in aid (official development assistance, ODA) of which $32 million was humanitarian.
* In 2008, it received $2 billion in aid, of which two thirds came from the European Commission, making it the tenth largest aid recipient that year.
* In 2005, Turkey was the largest government donor of humanitarian aid to Pakistan after the Kashmir earthquake. In that year, Pakistan received 68 percent, or $165 million, of Turkey's total humanitarian aid contributions.
* In volume terms, Pakistan has been the largest recipient of humanitarian aid from Turkey, receiving $222 million from 1995 to 2008.
* In addition, Iraq has featured as the top recipient in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008, all post-invasion years.
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