The “Development Assistance Committee” (DAC) of the “Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development” (OECD) announced that UAE has achieved the first position as the world’s largest donor country of official development assistance (ODA) in (2013), which amounted to (5.2) billion Dollars, as per the initial data of donor countries for (2013), in proportion to its Gross National Income.
His Excellency Sheikh “Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan”, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, stated that the role played by the UAE towards the entire world without exception, and with disregard to ethnicity, color, religion, or language, is only governed by the humanitarian consideration, which was established by the late Sheikh “Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan”, and by Sheikh “Kahlifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan”, the President of the UAE, who followed in his footsteps and His Highness Sheikh “Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum”, Vice President, Prime Minister, Ruler of “Dubai”, and His Highness General Sheikh “Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan”, Crown Prince of “Abu Dhabi”, and all Emiratis. And the numerous donors in the State, ranging between institutions, companies, funds, associations, bodies and centers, amounted to more than (23) donors, so that the UAE has achieve the first position among donor countries, after it was ranked (19th) among donor countries of the world, with a growth rate of (375%).
His Excellency valued the insightful perception of the distribution of aids to (18) developmental sectors, most importantly the education sector, which received (80.64) million Dollar, adding that the UAE, as a government and nation, does not hesitate to aid those in need, even if they are in the far reaches of the world, and the interest of the leadership in education is a necessary tool to achieve peace and sustainable development, and resistance to those wars and epidemics, which result in wasting human resources and destroying the achievements and successes of the State, as we believe in the necessity of helping growing countries to reach the required levels by the end of (2015), in order to assess them and move to the millennium developmental goals for post (2015).
With the beginning of 2014 in which donors in the State were particularly active, for example the “Dubai Cares” organized recently a “Walk for Education 2014” with the participation of eight thousand people of all ages and nationalities, to support members of the community and raise their awareness of the importance of providing a sound basic education for children in developing countries, the organization also announced a comprehensive program for sound education in “Pakistan” with an investment of (17) million dollars over three years, and the UAE project to help “Pakistan” announced the beginning of work in implementing (7) educational projects which include the establishment and development of three educational colleges, and four centers for vocational and artisan training for women, at a cost of (53) million dirhams.
The “Abu Dhabi Fund for Development” signed with the government of “Zambia” a soft loan agreement with the value of (36.7) million dirhams to finance the establishment of the three educational colleges to provide mathematics, science, technology and applied arts specialties, and the “Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charity and Humanitarian Foundation” offered grants and scholarships to nine schools for Syrian refugees in “Lebanon”, and to fund textbook and educational personnel, and the “UAE Red Crescent” provided (7) million dirhams for the Palestinian “Birzeit University”, a contribution to solve the financial difficulty faced by the University.
According to the UAE foreign aid for 2012 report of the “Ministry of Development and International Cooperation” published in October 2013, aid was distributed between charitable and humanitarian aid and development assistance, in the sectors of education, health, industry, tourism and biosphere, biodiversity, trade and regulatory policy, amendments and commodity assistance, communications, the environment, climate change, population policies, reproductive health programs and to support general programs and energy generation and supply, transportation and storage, infrastructure development and social services, water, public health, government and civil society.
