Hungary

Total aid in 2011: €100m

About Hungary's aid commitments:

Changes in 2011

There were no major changes in the Hungarian ODA since last year. The overall level of ODA increased due to the fact that Hungary started to contribute to the European Development Fund. The most traumatic change is the shrinking quantity of bilateral aid. There should be more transparency and efficiency in aid regarding the accessibility of data. For example it is difficult to find different documents in relation with development policy on the MFA website. Hungarian NGOs initiated last year the creation for a strategic framework for development policy, which will continue in 2012. In 2011, Hungarian NGDOs managed to lobby for a parliamentary resolution proposal, which was successfully adopted by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament. Hopefully the parliament plenary will adopt it in the Spring hearing and later the MFA will create the long-awaited strategy paper until the end of 2012.

Aid Quantity

In 2011 Hungarian ODA increased from 0.09% in 2010 to 0,11% of its GNI, showing growth of 22% . Hungarian ODA still focuses on the contributions to multilateral agencies (mainly EU) that constitute more than 80% of its total ODA.

System

In Hungary, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the central institution for development cooperation policy making. Within the ministry structures, the Department for International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid is dealing with policy issues. In general poverty focus is at the forefront of development activities, but it remains mostly rhetoric. Other ministries also have their own development cooperation projects. Their budget and project details are collected by the MFA and provided for the overall ODA statistics to DAC/OECD.

Countries and sectors

The number of recipient countries is overwhelmingly large compared to the size of the bilateral ODA budget. The MFA confirmed this would be a problematic issue in the future. However the MFA showed no sign to cut the no. of partner countries. There were approximately 80 partner countries in 2010. The Hungarian bilateral ODA focuses mainly on Afghanistan and neighboring countries. Very few of the least developed countries (apart from Afghanistan) were targeted in the last years. In terms of sectoral dissemination, the scope is also somewhat wide. The future strategic framework would help to pave the way to diminish the number of partner countries and help having more focused sectors.

Challenges in 2012 and beyond

The biggest challenge is the shrinking budget for bilateral development cooperation, which inhibits the long-term goals of Hungarian bilateral ODA. There is little interest in the topic of international development at the political level, but the Hungarian NGDO platform will continue to push forward the agenda to create a strategy for development cooperation. This strategy would contribute to a more planned, efficient and focused international development cooperation. The main challenge is to convince the political parties and the MFA to work on it.

Recommendations

 To prepare and endorse a strategic and legislative framework for development cooperation in Hungary.

 Decrease the number of partner countries to ensure the increase of the impacts of the bilateral Hungarian ODA.

 Introduce the monitoring and impact assessment system of Hungarian ODA.

 Sign up to IATI and respectively improve the statistical recording of the ODA flows in order to boost the transparency and effectiveness of aid.