Foreign minister announces plan to raise international aid to 0.7%

Catalonia's foreign action minister, Alfred Bosch, has announced a commitment by the government to raise its international aid spending to 0.7% by 2030, bringing it into line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations in 2015.

Part of an agreement with NGOs, social organizations and unions, the commitment will see international aid spending go up by 20 million euros in 2020, 2021 and 2022, although Bosch also said that it depended on the Catalan parliament passing the government's budget.

"We think it's a real landmark because it brings us closer to what we want to achieve as a country, as a society, in accordance with the guidelines marked out by the United Nations and the 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals," said Bosch.

The UN's Sustainable Development Goals are 17 global objectives that are aimed at eradicating such things as hunger, poverty and inequality, and boosting other areas, such as education, economic growth and sanitation.

Yet, an OECD report published in 2019 shows that very few countries have met or exceeded the spending goal of 0.7% of gross national income (GNI). Those that have include Sweden (1.04%), Luxembourg (0.98%), Norway (0.94%), Denmark (0.72%) and the UK (0.70%).

Additionally, the SDG Index, which measures the performance of 149 countries in achieving the goals, shows no country is on track to meet all the goals by 2030, including Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, which are at the top of the ranking.