Abstract
BackgroundDevelopment assistance from governments of high income countries represents the vast majority of international funding for global health. Recent stagnation of this important source of funding may affect attainment of major global health goals. The financial crisis is widely accredited as denting governments’ outlay for development aid, as well as citizen’s support for aid. Europe has also recently experienced record levels of migration; the so called ‘European migration crisis’. This study aims to analyse trends in public attitudes towards development aid in European Union (EU) countries, in the context of the European migrant crisis.MethodsEurobarometer survey data from 2011 (prior to the migrant crisis) and 2015 (at the peak of the crisis) was analysed for 27 EU countries. The outcome variables related to people’s levels of support to three statements around the importance of supporting people in developing countries, increasing countries’ commitments to aid and willingness to pay extra for products from developing countries. EU Member States were categorised as ‘arrival’ or ‘destination’ countries in view of migration routes and numbers of asylum applications per 100,000 population, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed, adjusting for countries’ economic status (gross domestic product per capita).ResultsIn general, support for development aid has increased from 2011 to 2015, but was largely unaffected by migration status when applying the regression model. In 2015, the belief that development assistance is ‘very important’ was significantly higher in countries where migrants first arrived compared to other EU Member States, with a trend towards this association also apparent in 2011.ConclusionsThe positive trends in public support for development aid are encouraging in an age where economic hardships at home, as well as the tone of national political discourses and rising right wing populism appear to suggest otherwise.
Highlights
Development assistance from governments of high income countries represents the vast majority of international funding for global health
This study aims to describe recent opinions across the European Union (EU) on development aid, and analyse the factors that may be responsible for differences across time and between countries, comparing the peak year of the migration crisis (2015) with a preceding year (2011)
The Eurobarometer is a series of annual surveys gauging public opinion on a number of different socio-political issues, including development aid
Summary
Development assistance from governments of high income countries represents the vast majority of international funding for global health. Despite the rising influence of civil societies and private corporations, governments of high income countries still provide the vast majority of internationally sourced funding for global health [1]. While this support from governments, known as Official Development Assistance for Health (ODA-H), had risen sharply in the first decade of this century, it has plateaued since 2010 [1]. ODA-H remains a major determinant of global health outcomes, as it represents a relatively stable source of funding for major global health programmes Disease control programmes, such as malaria control and elimination interventions, and wider health system strengthening initiatives in developing countries, may only be adequately supported if the rate of increase returns to levels observed between 2000 and 2010 [3, 4]. Health is just one sub-sector of ODA; still other programmes targeting a range of fields including education, energy, agriculture and environment can have a major impact on health [6]
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