Malta gave €15 million last year

Malta last year distributed €15 million in Overseas Development Assistance to poor and underdeveloped countries, recording the highest annual growth among EU member states.

In just a year, Malta managed to substantially increase its development aid

According to the latest EU figures, the island dedicated 0.26 per cent of its gross national income to ODA in 2011 – the highest level among the new EU member states and just €7 million short of its 2015 target.

“In just a year, Malta managed to substantially increase its development aid to €15 million in 2011 from €10 million in 2010,” a Commission official told The Times.

“This makes Malta the most successful member state among the new entrants and it also recorded the fastest annual growth in ODA among the 27.”

In 2005, all member states had agreed on a set of individual targets they must meet by 2015. States who were members before 2004 have to reach an ODA target of 0.7 per cent of GNI while new member states, including Malta, have a threshold of 0.33 per cent.

Back in 2004, when Malta joined the EU, its level of ODA was very low and totally disorganised. However, through a new set-up within the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Malta improved its assistance over the years in both quantity and quality. The ministry has put in place professional schemes which assist many NGOs in their development projects overseas.

In the past, several NGOs have criticised the “lack of transparency” surrounding these schemes and the allocation of funds. Only last November, Skop, the national platform of development NGOs, said transparency levels within Malta’s aid programme were “very, very low”.

It added that Maltese ODA figures were not published in any detail and despite several requests the organisation was never given a detailed breakdown of the figures.

The ministry denied these claims and said all projects were evaluated according to specific criteria contained in the overseas development policy published in 2008.

The Commission says Malta’s ODA will have to go up to €22 million annually to reach its 2015 target.

Last year the EU remained the biggest ODA donor in the world with assistance worth some €53 billion, although the figure dropped by €500 million over 2010.

Once again, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg continued to lead, already exceeding the 0.7 per cent target and aiming to reach one per cent of GNI.