A comprehensive report by the Ministry of International Cooperation and Development was released yesterday detailing the various donations and grants by the government and 43 semi-government and private organizations.
Based on the report, UAE spends Dh5.83 billion in 137 countries and earmarking a further Dh5.59bn for future projects, thus, placing the country at the 16th spot among the biggest donor of foreign aid in the world in 2012.
UAE’s greatest contributor is the government spending 2.62 billion dirhams while the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) was the next biggest spender, with 1.28 billion worth of contribution and the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation at the 3rd spot with 563 million dirhams. The majority of funds – Dh5.07bn – went towards development, with Dh400m going to humanitarian services and Dh360m going to charity.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai stated that the country does not provide conditional aid or wait for anything in return as the motivation to extend humanitarian support is its strong passion to contribute to attaining strength and offer a respectable life for everyone, in spite of their religion or race. This proves UAE’s worth as an international role model with its loyalty to Islamic teachings and helping the needy.
He specified President Sheikh Khalifa for praise, calling him a “pioneer in humanitarian work without peer” stating that the “help from him alone stood highest throughout all the private and Government institutions in the country”.
ADFD allocated Dh1.28 billion to projects across twenty-nine countries. The budget targeted energy generation and supply where it spent 369.7 million dirhams in those fields. The fund has given 44 million dirhams to Seychelles for a wind power station to change its diesel-operated plants. It also distributed grants for the building of bridges and roads in nations such as Albania, Afghanistan, Benin, Tanzania and Morocco.
United Arab Emirate’s 3rd top donor, the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, allocated 563 million to projects across sixty-five nations. A huge part of this – 222 million dirhams – went to the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, Texas, for its Ahmed bin Zayed Cancer Centre and Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for cancer therapy.