Improving Aid Allocation for Small Developing States

The level of aid received by small developing states and small island developing states (SIDS) is relatively high, considered either per capita or as a ratio to GNI, even if its total amount does not exceed 5% of the total amount of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). The rationale for this relatively high level of ODA is grounded in the high vulnerability of the small developing countries. But these countries, either by their population size or by the level of the vulnerabilities they face, are heterogeneous. So to be equitable the preferential treatment they deserve in aid allocation should be implemented on the basis of continuous criteria of population size and vulnerability rather than on the basis of membership to a category of small countries.