Foreign aid commitment-disbursement gap widens

The gap between commitment and disbursement of foreign aid to Bangladesh by development partners is gradually widening as it reached $21,737.517 million till last fiscal year (2012-13) since 1971-72 fiscal with the overall pipeline amount hitting $16.6 billion as of July 1, 2013. The overall foreign aid disbursement since the country’s independence till the last fiscal year totalled $59,311.657 million, including $24,661.358 million in grants while $34,650.229 million in loans, against the commitment of $81,049.174 million, according to the latest ‘Flow of External Resources into Bangladesh’ released by the Economic Relations Division (ERD). During the last 42 years from 1971-72 to 2012-13, the foreign aid commitment was much higher totalling $81,049.174 million, including $28,495.934 million in grants while $ 52,553.240 million as loans, the ERD publication showed. Of the overall disbursed amount till the last fiscal year, the highest amount $41,643.377 million came as project aid and budget support that included $13,012.642 million grants and $28,630.735 million loans. The second highest $10,907.840 million came as commodity aid that included $5650.833 million grants and $5,257.007 million loans followed by $6760.440 million in the form of food aid, including $5997.883 million in the form of grants and $762.557 million loans. The ERD flagship publication, ‘Flow of External Resources into Bangladesh’, also showed that the overall aid pipeline as of July 1, 2013 totalled $16,624.481 million, including $336.300 million food aid while the rest $16,288.181 million project aid and budget support. Contacted, one of the country’s renowned economist Dr Mustafa Kamal Mujeri said that when the donors usually make commitments to provide aid to a country, then the process of commitment to fund disbursement takes time as they have to follow some processes, according to a news agency.