UAE ranked world's 2nd largest ODA donor

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has maintained, for the third time in a row, its ranking as one of the 10 largest donor states in the Official Development Aid (ODA) in 2015, according to official data collected by the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

According to DAC's data, the UAE posted the highest ODA to Gross National Income (GNI) ratio in 2015 at 1.09 percent, with the country's ODA accounting for AED16.1 billion and over 52 percent of the aid, administered in the form of grants.

The UAE continued in 2015 its assistance to Africa, which received AED10.4 billion in aid or 65 percent of the total Emirati aid, in addition to doubling development allocations for the Sub-Saharan African countries.

Due to the critical humanitarian situations in the region, particularly the situation in Yemen and the Syrian refugee crisis, the humanitarian aid provided by the UAE rose by 62 percent in 2015 to AED3.45 billion, compared with the previous year.

Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemi, Minister of State for International Cooperation, praised the continuous support given by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and their directives to provide assistance to other nations, in culmination of the vision of the founding father the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

According to the statistics released by OECD's DAC, UAE is ranked the second largest donor in terms of ODA to GNI ratio, after Sweden. The UAE is also the only Arab country featuring in the list of the top 10 donor states.