This year, the UAE was recognised as the world’s largest foreign aid donor to overseas development projects.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said last month that the country devoted 1.17 per cent of its gross national income last year for such aid, the largest percentage of any country – about Dh18 billion.
According to the Foreign Aid Report, overall UAE aid topped Dh21.63bn in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available.
In the past week, an aid shipment was sent from Dubai to Yemen. In addition, the country is hosting more than 100 Yemenis and a Libyan family rescued from fighting. Meanwhile, a vast aid relief effort for those affected by the Nepal earthquake is continuing.
In many countries, aid provision is about international prestige; it can help enhance a country’s image and also improve diplomatic ties or increase influence.
For years, the UAE has spent millions of dollars on aid without documentation of the figures being released. In 2012, the country was recorded to have donated Dh5.83bn – a fraction of what was believed to have been given out, according to UAE relief workers. Searching for details of housing projects, going through old newspaper clippings and speaking to locals of countries hit by political unrest or natural disaster was the only way of getting some insight into the UAE’s immense relief work.
This shows that giving aid is not a mission of self-promotion for the UAE, but rather to genuinely reach those who have been hit by misfortune. Officials and volunteers involved in aid distribution often speak of the effort as part of Emirati values.
Residential areas in Egypt today, including an area of 6th of October City, on the outskirts of Cairo, are known by locals as Sheikh Zayed housing. The mention of the late UAE Founding Father leads to words of praise from many Egyptians.
What’s more, the quality of aid has been recognised by NGOs and the United Nations to be “five star”.
Ahmed Al Dhaheri, head of the Zayed Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation, said the country had only started to trace the funds and aid released in recent years.
“Our culture made it taboo to give to someone and say you did so,” he said in 2013. “Other [cultures] donate a small amount and hold a festival for it, but we help and spend and no one knows.”
The main reasons for aid now being better recorded was not to receive international recognition but to help develop a more effective way of distributing the funds, Mr Al Dhaheri said.
When The National accompanied the Emirates Red Crescent in 2013 to Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, the impressive on-the-ground work proved that funds were not just distributed to countries to use as they saw fit. When UAE aid was sent out, Emirati volunteer relief workers ensured those who needed it receive it.
The country’s commitment to charitable work is grounded in the past, but with an eye on the future, to develop citizens’ skills in emergency response and awareness of people in need across the globe.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
