- UN requires G7 countries to commit 0.7% of their Gross National Income to development aid.
- However, the US is the largest donor of international aid according to the UN.
- Statistics from One Campaign show that the G7 and the EU Institutions’ share of aid to Africa is at a near 50-year low.
The cuts to international aid by U.S. President Donald Trump (and billionaire Elon Musk) have sparked global outrage, including in Africa. However, given that the United Nations recognizes Washington as the single largest donor of global aid, can we definitively say Trump (or Musk) is wrong?
Consider this: according to the UN, the U.S. accounted for over 40 per cent of all humanitarian aid tracked in 2024. This means nearly half of last year’s global aid came from American taxpayers—a level of generosity that’s hard to ignore.
But was this a one-time display of goodwill? The numbers suggest otherwise. In 2023, data from US ForeignAssistance.gov shows Washington disbursed $71.9 billion in foreign aid, following the nearly $74 billion spent in 2022. More than a single act of generosity, this pattern reflects a consistent commitment over the years.
Looking forward; “The (US) government is currently on track to spending about $58.4 billion on international assistance programmes in the 2025 fiscal year,” January 2025 projections from the Congressional Budget Office show.
As a matter of fact, when you look at individual international organs, US’ contribution is staggering; according to the World Food Program (WFP) press release last week, the US provided nearly half of the $9.7 billion the agency received last year.
Read also: With WFP’s southern Africa office shutdown, is Trump’s ‘America First’ policy justified?
U.S. source of half of global aid
Case and point, the US is single handedly contributing well over half of international aid, and it has done so, every single year, for decades, according to the UN data.
So today, the single largest aid donor has opted to cut back, for whatever reason, again, who is to say that’s wrong? Ignoring the fist full of other extremely wealthy nations, the US is the only one of the Group of Seven (G7), that is single handedly donating up to (and more than), half of global aid!
Not to mention the affluent likes of Saudi Arabia who are not listed among the G7, but it only makes common ‘cents’ to query, what are the other six great nations doing? Note that Saudi Arabia is the largest Global Fund donor in the Middle East region. For the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment in 2022, Saudi Arabia pledged US$39 million and disbursed US$29 million
Let’s look at what these ‘Great Nations’ (G7) under the umbrella of the UN agreed to do in terms of international aid.
Trump aid cuts: UN aid requirements of the G7
The UN set a target for the G7 countries to spend 0.7 per cent of their Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance (ODA), which refers to aid intended to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries.
That said, analysis from The ONE Campaign shows, “the G7 and EU Institutions’ share of aid going to Africa is at its lowest point since 1973. Despite immense need, foreign aid, or Official Development Assistance (ODA), is not growing to address the interconnected global crises.”
Instead, the amount of ODA is being cut to even smaller level. Note, the UN doesn’t single out the US, rather, it includes all the G7; requiring them to spend 0.7 per cent of their federal budgets on international aid.
Unfortunately, the report shows that countries have not met this aid threshold. For instance, it wasn’t until 2013, that is, more than 10 years ago when the UK achieved this target for the first time.
“In 2021 the [UK] government announced it would reduce spending to 0.5 per cent of GNI, citing the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the One Campaign states.
Last year, the UK Labour Government said it would restore spending to 0.7 per cent as soon as “fiscal circumstances allow.” Now, compare that to the; “$71.9 billion in foreign aid that the (US) government spent in fiscal (year) 2023 that works out to 1.2 per cent of that year’s total federal outlays, which were more than $6.1 trillion.”
So, this implies that the US spent 1.2 percent of it’s federal budget on foreign aid (other monies like billions of dollars in military aid not accounted for here) while the UK spent 0.5 per cent. And that’s not the end of it. “Since fiscal (year) 2001, (US) foreign aid has ranged between 0.7 per cent and 1.4 per cent of total federal outlays,” the report says.
To it’s merit, the UK has an Act set in 2015 that requires it’s government to meet the target and “if missed, the government must report to Parliament explaining why this was the case.”
Even though the Act provides quite a bit of wiggle room, it is none the less, some form of dedication to the fact. Here is the wiggle room; “If relevant,” the Act says, “the explanation may include reference to economic or fiscal circumstances in the UK or overseas,” the report unveils, adding that this provision, “is the only accountability mechanism in the Act.”
The report further lays bare that; “following the reduction in UK spending to 0.5 per cent, the UK slipped from sixth in the world in 2020, to tenth in 2023 (in terms of aid as a percentage of GNI).”
Since then, “neither the Conservative nor Labour governments have said precisely when aid spending will return to 0.7 percent of GNI.” However, what is certain is that; “The Treasury said it expected UK aid spending to be around 0.5 per cent of GNI in the next few years after 2024/25.”
Now compare that 0.5 per cent to the fact that; “the USAID’s budget constitutes about 0.6 per cent of total US annual government spending of $6.75 trillion,” as reported by WFP in it’s announcement of closing offices in southern Africa due to the Trump aid cuts.
Notably, the US is the largest donor country in absolute terms relative to economic size. However, the US’ ODA is low, at 0.24 per cent of GNI in 2023, placing the US at 25th spot among OECD DAC members according to DonorTracker.org
The point is, the US is already spending more in aid (in absolute terms) than most of all other G7 countries, which brings us back to the question, why frown at Trump cuts? instead, why aren’t people and policymakers calling out the rest of the G7 to step up their development aid commitments?
According to the One Campaign, the G7 and the EU Institutions’ share of aid to Africa is at a near 50-year low of 25.8 per cent in 2022 (the most recent, complete data available). The report notes that; “net financial flows to African countries dropped by 18 per cent from 2020-2022, from $56 billion to $40 billion.”
While all fingers are pointing at Trump for his aid cuts, it should be noted that; “as of last year, the EU, France, Germany, and the US, all announced aid cuts totaling nearly $9 billion. Net financial flows to African countries dropped by 18 per cent between 2020 and 2022, toppling from $56 billion to $40 billion,” the report says.
None has said it better than President and CEO of The ONE Campaign Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, who stated, “The G7 and EU say they are prioritizing stronger partnerships with Africa, but ONE’s research shows that their words don’t match their actions.”
“The need for increased investments that drive economic growth and healthy lives in Africa has never been more important, but many partner countries are looking inward instead of forward,” he decries.
Better yet, as the wealthiest musician alive, Sean Carter aka Jay Z put it in one of his lyrics, “when the grass is cut, the snakes will show,” he wittingly quoted a long standing African proverb.
Trump (and Musk) have cut aid, now we can see what the rest of the world’s greatest nations have been doing and more importantly, what they will do. Granted, rather than cut aid, to make America great again, Trump should push the rest of G7 and EU to increase their aid share.
However, a matter of greater concern is not the issue of increasing aid but rather, the need to scrap debts that are crippling developing countries.
The One Campaign analysis shows that, “More than one in five emerging markets and developing countries paid more to service their debt in 2022 than they received in external financing. This could rise to more than one in three by 2025,”
It disturbingly reveals that, “African countries are projected to spend $81 billion on debt service between 2023-2025,” compare that to; “Net financial flows to African countries (2020-2022) was US $40 billion! But that is discourse for another article: Africa doesn’t want aid, it needs debt relief.
