Lediglich 50 % der Entwicklungshilfe geht an die Armen[en] 

In 1970, in a United Nations Resolution, 22 of the world's richest countries vowed to spend 0,7% of their national income (GNI) on aid. In 2005, only 5 countries had lived up to this promise. 

The EU is the world’s largest donor contributing over half of the world’s development assistance. In June 2005 , EU Ministers pledged to increase their Official Development Aid (ODA) to an average of 0.56% of GNI by 2010 and to 0.7% in 2015, a target already reached by 4 EU Members. 

The report published on 5 July 2006 by the NGO ActionAid welcomes these efforts, but stresses that current aid levels are still insufficient and that much of the aid delivered is not ‘real’, in that it is not contributing to poverty reduction in poor countries. 

• Phantom aid: According to ActionAid, 47% of the €62 billion worth of global development aid is redundant because it is poorly allocated, tied to donor’s own goods and services, highly conditional, badly coordinated and exaggerated through double counting of debt relief measures. The EU-15 doesn’t score too badly compared to other donors, with 8 countries (Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK, Finland and Belgium) among the top 10 real aid donors. Nevertheless, because only around 57% of aid from EU countries is targeted effectively, ActionAid argues that real EU development aid amounted to only 0,2% of GNI in 2004, a long way off from the 0,7% target. Furthermore, 4 EU Member States (Greece, Italy, Spain and Austria) are at the bottom of the donor league along with the US and Japan. 
• Lack of Donor Coordination: According to ActionAid, €3 billion of EU aid was lost through poor donor coordination in 2004. In December 2005, the EU adopted its first common Development Strategy Policy  in view of increasing coordination and harmonisation between Member States. 
• Technical Assistance: Donor spending on consultants, research and training accounts for one quarter of all development aid. However, ActionAid points out that technical assistance (TA) has but a limited impact on poverty reduction, because it is donor-driven rather than based on the real needs of poor countries, and because it is grossly over-priced. EU countries spent €6,3 billion on TA in 2004, of which ActionAid estimates that 62% was wasted. 
• Trade Related Technical Assistance: Trade related technical assistance and capacity building has increased by 50% since the Doha Ministerial Declaration in November 2001. At the WTO Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, in December 2005, the EU pledged a further €2 billion for aid for trade for developing countries. ActionAid warns that aid aimed at reducing barriers to poor countries markets may often be more in the interest of the donor country than the recipient. The report cites aid provided by the EU for building the capacity of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to negotiate trade liberalisation agreements (the Economic Partnership Agreements) as an example. 

ActionAid  welcomed renewed pledges made in 2005 by world leaders to increase global aid but said that, in its current form, the aid system is ill-equipped to translate these new commitments into lasting improvements in the lives of people in poverty. It therefore calls for a radical overhaul in the way that technical assistance is provided. Donors must stop trying to control poor countries through their use of technical assistance and the latter must take more responsibility in identifying useful capacity building projects. 

Development Commissioner Louis Michel’s spokesperson, Amadeu Altafaj, stressed the fact that "the EU has no hidden agenda" and that figures relating to EU development aid are based on OECD data, which includes debt relief as a form of ODA. He also pointed to the important efforts being made by the EU Member States, who have agreed, for the first time, to set development aid targets in a legally binding document. 

He said he was "very happy that ActionAid is underlining a very important issue, that of the huge amount of money wasted on consultancy fees" and said ActionAid was "very courageous" in highlighting this issue. The Commission is aware of this problem, which is why Commissioner Michel is pushing for an increase in aid in the form of budget support rather than programme-specific support. 

"An increase in budget aid will give developing countries more ownership and allow them to spend less money on outside experts... we want Africans to hold expert positions", he said, adding that this would necessitate action to improve training in these countries and to slow the brain drain.