According to data published by the RA National Statistical Service, Armenia received humanitarian aid worth 21.8 billion AMD from other countries in 2016. Humanitarian aid is assistance in the form of goods which the developed countries provide in order to help the population of less developed countries. Being a developing country, Armenia has also been receiving humanitarian aid from developed countries during the last years. The dynamics and sources of the aid are discussed below.
Dynamics of Received Humanitarian Aid
In 2016, Armenia received 7,631 tons of goods worth 45.6 million USD as humanitarian aid, which is lower than the indicator of the previous year by 7.5% or 3.6 million USD. The figure below shows that the volume of this type of assistance to Armenia has been steadily declining since 2011. As a result, the volume of aid provided in 2011 exceeds that of 2016 by 25%.
However, in the first quarter of 2017, the volume of humanitarian aid imported to Armenia registered sharp increase by about 63% compared to the comparable period of the last year. It is noteworthy that the volume of humanitarian aid from the following countries has sharply increased in the first quarter of this year compared to the comparable period of last year: Switzerland (888.8 times), Germany (4.3 times), China (2.6 times). However, the volume of aid provided by the US has reduced by 53% at the beginning of this year.
The following have had the largest share in the commodity structure of the received aid in 2016: products of chemical and related industries (51.7%), textile goods (14.3%), various industrial products (7.3%), as well as machines, equipment and various mechanisms (7.1%). The largest growth (compared to last year) has been registered in the textile items, the import volume of which has increased by 101%, reaching 6.5 million USD. At the same time, 17% growth has also been recorded in prepared food products. In 2016, Armenia received prepared food products worth 300 million AMD.
Sources of Humanitarian Aid
In 2016, the largest donor country for humanitarian aid to Armenia was the United States of America (21%), followed by Switzerland (16.9%) and China (14.2%). Moreover, since 2004, the US has continuously been the main source of humanitarian aid provided to Armenia. The share of this country in the total volume of assistance has even increased that of 73% during some years. The only exception is the year 2012, when China’s share reached 31.7% of the total aid.
One of the most important sources of humanitarian aid is also the EU. The share of its member countries in the total assistance formed 24% in 2016, decreasing by 3.7% compared to the previous year. The largest donor country among EU states is Italy (5.3%), followed by Germany (4%), Great Britain (3.9%) and the Netherlands (2.3%).
It is interesting to note that during last year, the Russian Federation provided only 14 thousand USD humanitarian aid to Armenia and, thus, the share of CIS countries in the total aid has not exceeded 0.1%.
Andranik Manukyan
“Union of Informed Citizens”