In light of the Ebola crisis, Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan (SPD) believes there is a greater need for health-focused development aid. Speaking to the “Rheinische Post” (Thursday edition), she stated that the Ebola outbreak clearly demonstrated that cuts to international health cooperation endanger human lives.
Radovan expressed satisfaction with the parliamentary backing aimed at strengthening Germany’s health development cooperation. She argued that every additional euro invested in prevention and treatment saves lives locally and simultaneously serves as an investment in the safety of all people in a globalized world.
This sentiment echoes prior demands from former Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), who had called for a significant increase in German development cooperation due to the spread of the Ebola virus. Although Alabali Radovan added that German development cooperation has already been investing in pandemic preparedness in Central Africa for many years, allowing existing projects to quickly implement additional aid, the final decision on federal spending rests with the Bundestag.
The context for this debate is growing concern over decreasing funding. Spending on development cooperation has dropped once again. The UN General Assembly established the “ODA quota”-which aims to guarantee a minimum level of global development assistance-in 1970. This quota mandates that developed countries allocate 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to development aid, a requirement also enshrined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. However, Germany’s ODA quota stood at 0.67 percent in 2024, with projected reductions to 0.52 percent in 2026 and merely 0.43 percent by 2029.
