As the 2015 deadline for the 0.7 percent aid target approaches, pressure to reach the goal seems to mount for certain governments — but not for all donors.
Decades after it was recognized and reaffirmed at several international conferences, the 0.7 percent target still has its fair share of skeptics. While the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has stated that all members of the Development Assistance Committee except the United States and Switzerland have “generally accepted” the target as a long-term objective, only European Union member states actually committed to the 2015 deadline in 2005.
A closer look at the 0.7 percent aid target’s history shows that the figure evolved from the 1 percent recommended by the World Council of Churches in 1958. From 1 percent, the target was further refined to 0.75 percent — a goal proposed by Dutch economist Jan Tinbergen, who became the chairman of the U.N. Committee on Development Planning in 1964. The Pearson Commission set the final 0.7 percent target, which was officially recognized in a U.N. General Assembly resolution in October 1970.