{"text":[[{"start":8.5,"text":"People in G7 advanced nations believe that nearly one-fifth of their national budgets are spent on overseas development aid, according to a new survey — more than 20 times the actual figure."}],[{"start":20.25,"text":"The survey, commissioned by France as part of its G7 presidency and seen by the FT in advance of publication this week, shows that Americans on average think that 25.4 per cent of their national budget goes on overseas co-operation. The real figure in 2025, when US official development assistance (ODA) fell by more than half compared with 2024 to $29bn, was well below 1 per cent."}],[{"start":47.65,"text":"Even in Europe, where estimates were marginally more accurate, respondents overestimated aid by a factor of roughly 15. In France, those surveyed thought on average that 14.7 per cent of the national budget went on international co-operation, with the British believing it to be 15.2 per cent. The real figure in both cases for 2025 was about 1 per cent."}],[{"start":69.55,"text":"“There is a massive misperception of the scale of what we are doing that is absolutely striking,” said Rémy Rioux, who is stepping down as chief executive of the French Development Agency (AFD) after a decade. “We need to explain much better the actual scale.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":85.14999999999999,"text":"The survey, conducted by French polling company Ifop in April, follows the sharpest reductions of aid in years, with the main donor countries cutting their ODA contributions by 23.1 per cent compared with 2024 to $174.3bn in 2025, according to the OECD. The report defined international co-operation as “aid or solidarity-based investments made . . . in developing countries”."}],[{"start":110.39999999999999,"text":"Germany — even with a reduced ODA budget of $29.1bn — last year surpassed the US as the biggest aid donor after American contributions fell with the closure of the US Agency for International Development."}],[{"start":125.05,"text":"In Europe, big donors including the UK have also cut aid amid fiscal constraints and competing spending priorities including defence, the war in Ukraine and immigration. "}],[{"start":136.15,"text":"“This whole ecosystem is currently in a state of shock and under severe stress,” said Rioux. However, he said cuts had come after what he described as a “fantastic decade” for international co-operation when spending accelerated, partly as a result of the push to combat climate change following the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":158,"text":"The Ifop survey confirmed that the public saw international co-operation as “a mix of altruism and self-interest”, Rioux said, arguing that “the idea that it is also a long-term investment in one’s own interest is coming back very strongly”."}],[{"start":172.8,"text":"He added that Italy and Spain, which are at the forefront of Europe’s immigration crisis, had increased spending on international co-operation last year."}],[{"start":181.3,"text":"Leslie Maasdorp, chief executive of British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, said there had been a shift away from traditional aid towards an “investment-centric model”."}],[{"start":194.75,"text":"The BII, which makes a profit, invests risk capital in businesses and projects as a way of “crowding in” other investments and improving the economic and job-creating potential of recipient countries."}],[{"start":206.9,"text":"“The days of handovers and grants are over,” Maasdorp said. “The scale of the development needs far exceed what government aid budgets can cover.”"}],[{"start":215.65,"text":"Aid cuts were more than about saving money, Maasdorp said. “It’s also about inefficiencies in the old system, the dependencies it created, the lack of ownership by recipient countries and the disempowerment that comes with that.” "}],[{"start":228.9,"text":"Hakainde Hichilema, Zambia’s president, told the FT last year that aid cuts were “long overdue” and would spur developing countries to stand on their own feet. But aid officials worry that abrupt cuts will wreck health programmes, in particular, potentially costing millions of lives. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":246.55,"text":"The Ifop survey, which was conducted online with more than 7,000 adults, found that 64 per cent of respondents believed events in developing countries affected their lives while 49 per cent believed that international co-operation was “a waste of public money”."}],[{"start":264.1,"text":"Rioux said the turning point had come with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. "}],[{"start":270.45000000000005,"text":"“It took some time for the consequences to fully unfold, but things are accelerating now. That does not mean there is no need for international co-operation — far from it — but it does mean it needs to be thought about differently,” he said. “The previous narrative [of global co-operation] was extremely powerful, but it probably reached its limits.”"}],[{"start":291.50000000000006,"text":"Data visualisation by Cleve Jones"}],[{"start":304.65000000000003,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1776849012_9374.mp3"}