United Arab Emirates

Between 2008 and 2009 the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE’s) official development assistance (ODA) contributions significantly increased, from US$88 million to US$834 million. In terms of humanitarian aid, it is one of the most generous non-Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors, featuring as the second largest every year between 2004 and 2009. In 2009 the UAE’s humanitarian aid peaked at US$352.6 million, but it then dropped to US$37.8 million in 2010. However, as this data is currently dependent on the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Financial Tracking Service (FTS), it could reflect levels of reporting rather than actual contributions.

In 2010 the UAE made a significant push to make is aid more visible when it reported its 2009 aid information to the OECD DAC as a separate donor from ’Arab countries’, and was the first non-DAC donor to report disaggregated data to the OECD DAC Creditor Reporting System (CRS). This level of detail will enable a more comprehensive assessment of the UAE’s development aid and humanitarian aid contributions. In 2008 the Office for the Coordination of Foreign Aid (OCFA) was established, an independent body to support the delivery and implementation of the UAE’s development and humanitarian aid. OCFA has provided the OECD DAC with historical data revisions back to 1971 for the whole of government, so full UAE data should be available through the OECD DAC in 2012.

The UAE has made some efforts to engage in humanitarian coordination mechanisms. In 2006 it joined the UN OCHA Donor Support Group, an informal support group designed to fulfil OCHA’s mandated coordination activities. The UAE is currently the only non-DAC donor in this group and each member is expected to contribute at least US$0.5 million annually.