Non-partner countries

Besides the 18 partner countries involved in governmental cooperation, some other developing countries also receive aid from Belgium. Depending on the source of that aid, the amounts concerned can vary tremendously from year to year. The statistics compiled by Belgian Development Cooperation detail all such support, which may take the form of non-recurrent expenditure or expenditure spread over a limited period. Generally the programmes in question have to do with emergency or humanitarian aid (falling under the foreign affairs budget), loans or debt cancellations (falling under the development cooperation or finance budget). However, they may also entail commitments spread over several years with actors other than the Belgian state (including NGOs, universities, regions and municipalities, among others). In a bid to make aid even more effective, at least where activities subsidised by DGD are concerned, the minister is striving to achieve even greater synergies within the government’s policy focus.

In 2007, the following non-partner countries were among the top 25 countries to receive aid: Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Ghana, Afghanistan and Sudan. Part of the aid awarded to Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia (which are all former partner countries of governmental cooperation) went towards concluding government projects that had come to an end. Cameroon and Burkina Faso also received support for NGO cooperation. Cameroon and Sierra Leone both benefited from a comprehensive debt cancellation package. The aid awarded to Ghana took the form of a state-to-state, and the support given to Afghanistan and Sudan was spent primarily on humanitarian aid and resources for conflict prevention and preventive diplomacy. In addition, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia received support from the Belgian Fund for Food Security, and Ethiopia also benefited from a comparatively large university cooperation package.