Norway handed out nearly NOK 28 billion in foreign aid last year and for the second year in a row, Brazil emerged as the country receiving the most funds. Brazil got nearly twice as much as Afghanistan, even though Brazil’s rapidly growing economy hardly ranks it as among the world’s poorest nations.
Brazil received NOK 1.4 billion from Norwegian authorities, or roughly 5 percent of Norway’s total foreign aid development budget of NOK 27.7 billion (USD 5 billion). That compares to the NOK 777 million that went to Afghanistan, which received the next-largest amount, followed by Tanzania and the Palestinian territories. They each received around NOK 630 million.
After that came Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia, Somalia, Malawi, Sudan and South Sudan, according to a list of the 10 largest recipients of Norwegian foreign aid compiled by aid agency Norad.
Hanne Thonstad of Norad told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that Brazil’s surprisingly large share is linked to long-term commitments to climate measures and rain forest preservation. Much of the money was funneled through Norfund, a state investment fund for business operations abroad, which has invested in construction of hydroelectric projects in Brazil.
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