Developing aid
Developing aid: All mainstream parties stress the importance of strengthening
German developing aid towards the 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) OECD
target as a pillar of Germany’s international security policy.
Facing international criticism regarding its subpar defence spending, the German government
repeatedly emphasized the equal importance to meet the commitment to spend
0.7% of GNI (gross national income) on developing aid. Germany is the second
largest DAC (Development Assistance Committee) donor in volume, following
the US and ranking before the UK, Japan and France.
In 2016, Germany
technically met the ODA target for the first time, even though the strong increase
of 36.1% also reflects the doubling of “in-donor refugee costs”
Social democrats and Greens call for achieving the ODA target without
taking spending related to refugees based in Germany into account. The
conservatives suggest to connect spending increases on developing aid to
increases in defence spending at a 1:1 ratio until the 0.7% ODA target is
achieved.
The Liberals support the idea of a 3% of GDP target for international
security spending, including defence, foreign policy and foreign aid (see below).
Conscription: A reintroduction of conscription such as in the case of Sweden is
not on any of the mainstream parties’ agenda but promoted by the far-right AfD.
EU Forecast
euf:ba18.d:88/nws-01