Entwicklungshilfe

Development Aid (development co-operation), name for all private and public activities for supporting and promoting economic and social development in developing countries. The legal basis for public development aid is the Development Aid Act of 1974. In Austria public development aid includes bilateral services (financing of projects and funding students from abroad, refugee aid, supplying food and disaster aid) and credits (financial loans, projects financed together with the World Bank etc.) as well as multilateral services (grants to multilateral organisations). In 1993 the total sum of public development aid amounted to ATS 6,326.31 million or 0.30 % of the gross national product. In 1993 approximately ATS 626 million of Austria´s development aid (Three-Year-Programme) went to the following regions: priority countries (Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Nicaragua and Bhutan) and co-operation countries (Burundi, Kenya, Namibia, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Nepal, Pakistan, Guatemala, Costa Rica and El Salvador). Internationally, Austria´s contributions amount to the average of the 21 OECD member countries. In Austria there are numerous private development aid organisations, whose projects are partly subsidised by the Government (ÖED, ÖAD, ÖIE, adc-Austria etc.); churches also play an important role in development aid ("Bruder in Not", "Dreikönigsaktion" etc.). In addition, Austria supports reforming countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Literature: Österreichische Forschungsstiftung für Entwicklungshilfe: Entwicklungspolitik, Berichte, Analysen, Informationen, 1994.