Japan ranked third among the world’s 22 major foreign aid donors in 2006, according to an annual survey released by the OECD on 3rd April 2007.

This is the first time since 1982 that Japan has ranked third or lower in official development assistance (ODA) donations, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Japan was the number one donor from 1991 to 2000.

Even though the ministry considers it to be a cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy, ODA has been declining over the last seven years under fiscal reforms.

UN MDGs set ODA at 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) by 2015, but Japan only reached 0.25% of GNI in 2006, down 0.03% from 2005, putting the MDG target under pressure.

MOFA said that the drop in Japanese ODA was due to a decrease in debt relief for Iraq, as well as yen loans and grant aid.

Although the USA and the UK were the number and one and two ODA donors, respectively, in 2006, ODA/GNI fell to 0.17% for the USA, and rose to 0.52% for the UK.

Total ODA from members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) fell by 5.1% in 2006 to US$ 103.9 billion, amounting to only 0.30% of members’ combined GNI.

Furthermore, aid to sub-Saharan Africa, excluding debt relief, was unchanged in 2006, giving rise to doubts that the Gleneagles G8 summit commitment to double aid to Africa by 2010 will be met.

In descending order, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Denmark were the only countries to meet the UN target of GNI/ODA.