Baltic States gain prominence as donors of international aid

Apr 02, 2008
Monika Hanley with World Bank

Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Lithuania)

The Baltic States have emerged onto the global scene as Europe’s newest donors of international aid. After a long history of being the recipients of aid, the three Baltic nations have started to lend a hand to those less fortunate over the last few years, and are eager to do more, according to a new report by the World Bank.

Emergence was enhanced during a five-day forum in Washington D.C. hosted by the World Bank for 10 of the EU’s newest members with the aim of discussing how emerging donors, formerly aid recipients, can most effectively assume their roles as development partners and shape their development assistance programs.

"This workshop gave us an opportunity to learn from rich World Bank expertise in areas crucial for our countries as new donors,” said Vladimirs Karols, Director of the International Financial Policy Department, Ministry of Finance of Latvia. “In addition, it has been a unique forum to share the vision and structure of our national development policies and has enabled us to build an invaluable network with the Bank staff and colleagues in neighboring countries.”

So far Lithuania has partnered with Afghanistan to build 19 schools in the isolated Ghor province of Afghanistan, which so far has received the least amount of international aid, and is working to improve access to primary school for 6000 children. Lithuania is also involved in the vaccination of over 20 thousand children and the building of nine new police stations.

‘Setting an example of Lithuania’s activity in the province of Ghor, we tried to demonstrate how efforts of military representatives and civilians in one direction could assure the friendliness of the local people and accelerate provincial development even on a tight budget,’ said A.Matonis, Head of the Lithuanian Special Mission in Afghanistan.

Estonia, working in accordance with a UNICEF led initiative, is protecting the rights of children in the North Caucasus, as well as providing humanitarian assistance to Tajikistan, suffering from the cold wave in recent months.

The World Bank also reported that the enthusiasm for increasing development efforts of New Member States is evident. The Official Development Assistance targets for new EU member states is 0.17% of GNI by 2010, almost doubling to 0.33% of GNI by 2015. If last week was any indication, EU New Member States are up to meeting the challenge.