OECD says richest nations must increase aid contributions

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Western developed nations will need to increase financial assistance to the worlds poorest countries in the next three years in order to avoid missing pledges they made to those underdeveloped nations, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on Thursday. The OECD said that development assistance will drop in 2007 as it did in 2006 due to debt relief targeted at Iraq and Nigeria, despite pledges made by the G7 nations at the Gleneagles summit in July 2005.According to data made available by the OECD only a few nations, among them Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, achieved the United Nations target of donating at leat 0.7 percent of each nations income to poor nations. Sweden and Norway each donated 0.94 percent of their GDP in 2005. The UK spent 0.47 percent of its GDP on aid. While the United States contributed the most in aid due to its huge economy, the aid it provided amounted to only 0.22 percent of its GDP.The report from the Paris-based organization said that aid funding has increased by 5 percent per year recently, but that in order to meet the Gleneagles pledges aid would have to increase by 11 percent per year between 2008 and 2010.