Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Monitor No universal blueprint Growing support for taxing airline tickets Avian flu lessons from Europe “Alternative development” often stops short Wolrd Bank proposes active poverty reduction Zimbabwean success in fighting HIV/AIDS Nature conservation fund for the South Caucasus German development budget expected to rise in 2006 DAC publishes Annual Report 2005 Wold Food Programme buys drought insurance for Ethiopia 04/2006		DAC publishes Annual Report 2005 Richard Manning, chairman of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), expresses confidence in the trend of rising development assistance continuing for the time being. In the preface to the current DAC Development Cooperation Report 2005, Manning writes that, if donor countries honour their pledges, annual official development assistance (ODA) will increase in real terms from almost $80 billion currently to $128 billion by 2010. “Overall, we may see the largest expansion of ODA, as measured by the DAC, since the Committee was formed in 1960.” However, Manning also points out that the pledged ODA quota of 0.36% of GDP for all DAC member countries by 2010 (currently 0.26%) would only marginally exceed the quota prevalent in the early 1990s. Manning is cautiously critical of donor efforts to strengthen capacities in the recipient countries. All too often, he maintains, individuals are trained without much regard for the institutions they work in. “A more strategic and longer-term approach to upgrading key institutions may be required, into which programmes to improve the skills of individuals would then be integrated.” (ell)