The United Arab Emirates recognized as the world’s top humanitarian donor

The United Arab Emirates has been named as the world’s top humanitarian donor of the year 2013, after it offered 5.89 Billion US dollars in foreign aid that year, reaching out in more than 140 countries around the world through 38 donor groups.

The announcement was made by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an organization dedicated to promoting policies which improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. The Committee noted in its yearly report that up to 93 percent of the UAE’s foreign aid were in the form of Official Development Assistance (ODA), making 1.33 percent of the country’s Gross National Income.

The more than 140 countries benefitting from the UAE’s foreign aid disbursements in 2013 included developing nations in Africa, and countries in the Middle East and North Africa region that have been strongly affected by turmoil in the past few years, including Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Jordan, the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

The UAE is home to the International Humanitarian City (IHC), a Dubai-based logistics centre for the distribution of humanitarian aid which hosts more than 50 non-governmental organizations and commercial entities, among them the Global Logistics Service of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, who are all involved in the delivery of aid during crises and for long-term development purposes.

[ifrc.org]