In these days of increasing international tensions, we hear incessantly about the magic two percent. Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have agreed to commit two percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to defence spending, to help ensure the Alliance’s military readiness. To date, 23 of the 32 members have met the target. Canada isn’t one of them.
We have, as a result, met with much criticism from other members, particularly the United States, which spends 3.4 percent. We only spend 1.4 percent. Shame on us.
Another magic number, but one we hardly hear about at all, is the .70 percent of Gross Domestic Income (GDI) that the United Nations has set as a target for the world’s richest nations to spend on foreign aid. Here, too, Canada is delinquent, currently spending only .38 percent. Much more shame on us.
Even more delinquent is the U.S. It spends only .24 percent, finding itself at the bottom of the list.
Numbers for the U.S. are deceptive. Its spending on foreign aid in dollars is the world’s highest which makes it look very generous indeed. But it is highest because it is by far the largest of the rich donor countries. It is almost three times the size of the next largest, Japan, and four times as large as the third, Germany. So while it appears generous, on a true measure of generosity, percent of GDI, it is a cheapskate. This doesn’t stop Americans from feeling put upon, that the world is taking advantage of them, as their new president insists.
Furthermore, U.S. development and humanitarian aid will likely decline precipitously in the near future. President Trump has unleashed Elon Musk and his gang of vandals on USAid, the country’s main funding agent, and they are busily gutting it.
Only five of the higher income countries meet the .70 target with Norway topping the list at 1.09 percent. The most generous of the larger countries is Germany at .82 percent.
Even China, not yet ranked as a high income country, is more generous than Canada or the U.S., donating .36 percent of its GNI. Turkey, also not considered a high income country, donates an impressive 1.15 percent, well over the UN target.
When the U.S. badgers us about our failure to meet the two percent of GDP in military spending we should respond by pointing out their failure to meet the much easier .70 percent target for aid spending. Discreetly, of course, because we haven’t met the goal either, but at least we are doing significantly better than they are, so we have the right to crow a little.
In the current campaign for leadership of the federal Liberals, the contenders are eagerly one-upping each other over how quickly they’d meet the two percent NATO commitment. Fair enough, but personally I would rather see them focusing more on the .70 percent goal for human development. It’s much easier to reach and a more equitable world is also a more secure one.