While the 27 EU member states are collectively the world's largest source of aid, giving about 53 billion euros ($69.5 billion) a year, "only a tenth of 1 percent of global aid funding is used to help countries withstand disasters and save money on relief," said the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid Kristalina Georgieva at the European Development Days conference in Brussels, reports Reuters.
Combining humanitarian and development efforts would be beneficial for countries that have to face sudden disasters, European Commission officials said at the conference, and the potential benefits of lowering repeated disaster bailouts outweighed risks of having money going astray by providing long-term funding for projects in states lacking good governance.