What drives donor funding in population assistance programs?

Hendrik P. van Dalen, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)
Mieke Reuser, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)

The 1994 International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD) established goals for the expansion of population assistance. This global effort has so far not sufficiently been supported by funds. Dynamic panel estimation methods are used to see what lies behind the level of donor contributions and the sharing of burden. Panel data on expenditures for population and AIDS activities have been collected for 21 donor countries for the years 1996-2002.On an aggregated scale population activities are predominantly supported by large countries that prefer to earmark their donations for family planning and AIDS. Small countries have a preference for unearmarked funds, handled by multilateral organizations. Developing countries profit directly from growth and development in donor countries. However, donor countries do not give much weight to local development in developing countries. Political opportunism in the timing of funds is not strong.