Baltic States gain prominence as donors of international aid

The Baltic States have emerged onto the global scene as Europe'snewest donors of international aid. After a long history of being therecipients of aid, the three Baltic nations have started to lend a hand tothose 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 bythe World Bank for 10 of the EU's newest members with the aim of discussing howemerging donors, formerly aid recipients, can most effectively assume theirroles as development partners and shape their development assistance programs.

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

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

'Setting an example of Lithuania's activity in the provinceof Ghor, we tried to demonstrate how efforts of military representatives andcivilians in one direction could assure the friendliness of the local peopleand accelerate provincial development even on a tight budget,' said A.Matonis, Headof the Lithuanian Special Mission in Afghanistan.

Estonia, working inaccordance with a UNICEF led initiative, is protecting the rights of childrenin 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 developmentefforts of New Member States is evident. The Official Development Assistancetargets for new EU member states is 0.17% of GNI by 2010, almost doubling to0.33% of GNI by 2015. If last week was any indication, EU New Member States areup to meeting the challenge.