“Many people think that Ethiopia’s development endeavours are mostly financed by Donors.” ”However, Ethiopia receives lesser foreign assistance when compared to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.”

It was the State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Berhane Gebrekirstos, speaking on a forum organized to promote the 5-year Growth and Transformation Plan to Ambassadors of other African Countries in Addis Ababa, on Last week, on March 7/2011, according to the Amharic weekly Ethiopian-Reporter. Berhane Gebrekirstos stated Ethiopia’s resistance to Donors’ demand for further economic liberalization as a reason.

The statement came a week after the news that Ethiopia topped UK bilateral aid recipients list globally and a month or two after the reports from US congress put her among the top foreign assistance recipients in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the reaction to the news was mixed. Some were simply confused, while others were quick to accuse him of lying – though how one can misled an informed group of foreign Ambassadors is difficult to imagine.

So, what was Berhane talking about?

It all boils down to a single question: How should we do rank aid recipients?

There are a number of ways to go about it. Country-wise comparison: Per country comparison: the share aid recipient countries in the Donor’s budget. Or, Per capita comparison: the amount of the aid divided by the population of the recipient country. You may also wish to compare the ratio of foreign aid to the recipient country’s annual government revenue or per capita income or GDP or GNI etc. As it is the case with many statistical presentations, it seems possible to pick an approach that serves your objective.

That is why Human Right Watch has been claiming Ethiopia has become the top recipient of Development Assistance, next to Iraq and Afghanistan, in its recent campaign against it. (I think their African Bureau busy with North Africa lately). On the contrary, the Development Assistance Group (DAG-Ethiopia), the consortium of 16 Donor countries and agencies which wishes to see even more aid destined to Ethiopia claimed that Ethiopia remains ‘comparatively under-aided on a per capita basis’, in its June/2010 report.

Apparently, the Ethiopian government likes to have it both ways. The state media routinely reports increases in foreign assistance to Ethiopia as a measure of its approval rating in the international arena and also to dishearten the opposition that looks for western pressure on the government. On the other hand, high-ranking officials play down the role of foreign aid to de-emphasize the role of aid in the economic development and to assert the government’s policy independence.

Thus, it is better to take a firsthand look at the data.

Taking a look at the data is not an easy undertaking through. Since development assistance is channeled through different shapes and channels – bilateral and also multilateral, the compilation of such data needs a thorough aggregation of data using consistent criteria. Such a compilation of aid data, global or for Africa, is not available for the years after 2008, or at least I could find one. And it would be misleading to use previous years’ data, since reports claim a surge in foreign assistance to Ethiopia in recent years.

Thus, I settled for the next best thing – present the data at hand and let you make up your mind.

The charts and tables below show the latest US and UK bilateral aid budget to sub-Saharan Africa per country and per capita. Note that the aid per capita data is my own computation. Thus, I provided in the tables the population size data (2008 est.) used for the calculation.

Top Recipients of US bilateral aid in sub-Saharan Africa

A per country comparison puts Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Tanzania the top 5 recipients of US aid to sub-Saharan Africa.

A per capita comparison, on the other hand, shows the top five beneficiaries of US aid to ss Africa are Liberian, Namibian, Botswana, Zambian, and Rwandan.

Chart A – US aid for sub-Saharan Africa per country for 2011.

The data, in the chart, is from President Barak Obama’s budget proposal presented to the US Congress. [Data source: ‘Africa: U.S. Foreign Assistance Issues’. Congressional Research Service, Feb 2011. Page 10]

Chart B – US aid for sub-Saharan Africa per capita for 2011.

The data, in the chart, is my own computation based on US aid budget for 2011 AND sub-Saharan Africa population data 2008.

Table A – US aid for sub-Saharan Africa for 2011 per country, per capita and the population size of recipient countries.

Top Recipients of UK bilateral aid in sub-Saharan Africa

With regard to UK aid to ss Africa, a per country comparison places Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, DRC and Sudan in the top five.

A per capita comparison, however, shows citizens of Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia Sierra are the highest beneficiaries of UK’s aid to ss Africa.

Chart C – UK aid for sub-Saharan Africa per country for 2010/11, in pound sterling.

The data, in the chart, if from BILATERAL AID REVIEW: TECHNICAL REPORT. UK – Department for International Development. MARCH 2011. Page 33]

Chart D – UK aid for sub-Saharan Africa per capita for 2011/12, in pound sterling.

The data, in the chart, is my own computation based on UK aid budget for 2011/12 AND sub-Saharan Africa population data 2008.

Table B – UK aid for sub-Saharan Africa for 2011 per country, per capita and the population size of recipient countries.