UN figures show how the West has put its military spending way ahead of help for Africa, writes Larry Elliott
Rich western countries spend up to 25 times as much on defence as on overseas aid, and have increased their assistance to the poorest African countries by just $3 (€2.5) a head since 1990, according to United Nations figures.
Research to be unveiled in the UN's human development report later this year shows that every country in western Europe and North America has a bigger military budget than overseas development budget, with the biggest disparities in the United States and Britain.
Although the UK has increased its aid budget in recent years, the UN data reveals that for every $1 spent on development, $8 is spent on defence.
In the US, one cent in every dollar goes on aid, compared to the 25 per cent of the budget that is spent by the Pentagon.
The figures emerged as development campaigners stepped up their pressure on the G8 to deliver an immediate $50 billion increase in aid at its summit starting today.
Defence spending in both the US and the UK has increased in recent years as a result of the war in Iraq, taking the total in the G7 (the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada) to more than $660 billion a year. This is 10 times the spending on aid in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the poor countries of Europe.
The UN figures show that, while Germany and Italy cut defence spending in the four years from 2000 to 2004, and France held it steady, spending on defence in the UK rose by $92 per head to $790 a year. In the US, there was a sharper increase of $379 per head to $1,549.
Separate UN figures show how little of the increase in prosperity seen in the West since 1990 has found its way to sub-Saharan Africa.
Since 1990, according to the UN figures, per capita increases in the G7 nations have averaged $5,770. The US has enjoyed the biggest increase in per capita incomes - from just over $30,000 a year to just over $37,500 a year - while recession-affected Japan has seen the smallest increase of $3,400 a year. Over the same period, UN figures show that spending per head among G7 countries on sub-Saharan Africa has risen by $3 - from $13 a year in 1990 to $16 a year in 2003.
In three of the G7 countries - France, Japan and Canada - spending on sub-Saharan Africa is lower now than it was in 1990, the year the UN launched its annual human development report. Britain's spending on aid to sub-Saharan Africa doubled between 1990 and 2003 - from $11 to $22 per head - but that represents around one 40th of what the government spends on defence.
France, despite cutting its per capita spending on Africa by $11 since 1990, remains the most generous of the G7 countries, providing $41 a head in 2003.