Development aid and military spending around the world

What is going on at the Excel exposition centre in London's Docklands is something different from the colourful picture left. Every two year the UK capital, in the second week of September, is the hosting place for the Defence and Security Equipment International, the most important arms fair in the world.
Despite the elegant and comforting wording we are actually talking about buying and selling arms .
I don't want to be a moralist or a dreaming pacifist and I am aware that in various countries the military industry is one of the key sectors of the national economy with spin off effects on collateral industries . What I was curious about, after reading about the fair, was to check if there is any correlation or opposite trend in governments' spending for defence and development aid and the distance between the two voices in national budgets by what I came across in data and pages on Internet.
I am not going to reason about the definitions used in the documents reviewed but just presenting data that helped me understand the big picture.

Stockholm International 
Peace Research Institute

According to SIPRI, world military expenditure in 2010 reached $1630 billion, representing  2.6 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) or $236 for each person. Spending was 1.3 per cent higher in real terms than in 2009 and  50 per cent higher than in 2001. What is surprising me is the fact that emerging economies, like the BRIC countries, becoming important regional political players, are increasing their military expenditures. In particular, significant increases
continued in 2010 in South America (5.8 per cent) and Africa (5.2 per cent). In contrast, the increases in North America (2.8 per cent) and Asia and Oceania (1.4 per cent) were lower than in recent years, while in Europe spending fell for the first time since 1998 (by 2.8 per cent).

Working in a small international organization, I am aware of the difficulties the overall international aid and cooperation community is suffering for the constant cut spending in aid, despite the efforts made to improve the effectiveness and impact of money invested in development projects and I am figuring out as just converting a 0.2/0.3 % of resources spent in arms could help improve the overall picture. As outlined by the Secretary General in a recent speech, sustainable development is the key point for the future global stability and security is sustainable development. Only regional and global partnership will help dealing with climate change and water and natural resources scarcity and management. Political confrontation and military deterrence cannot be the right path.

Infographic: US Military spending versus foreign aid

The big aid donors

2007 figures. Click heading to sort

Country or Area	Aid as % of gross national income	Aid, $m
SOURCE:
Australia	0.32	2668.52
Austria	0.50	1808.46
Belgium	0.43	1952.83
Canada	0.29	4079.69
Denmark	0.81	2562.23
Finland	0.39	981.34
France	0.38	9883.59
Germany	0.37	12290.7
Greece	0.16	500.82
Ireland	0.55	1192.15
Italy	0.19	3970.62
Japan	0.17	7678.95
Luxembourg	0.91	375.53
Netherlands	0.81	6224.26
New Zealand	0.27	319.8
Norway	0.95	3728.02
Portugal	0.22	470.54
Spain	0.37	5139.8
Sweden	0.93	4338.94
Switzerland	0.37	1689.16
United Kingdom	0.36	9848.54
United States	0.16	21786.9

Aid received by country

2007 figures. Click heading to sort

Country or Area	Aid received per head, 2005, $	Aid received as % of gross national income, 2007	Aid received in 2007, $m
SOURCE: article from the guardian Aid Spending and aid received:does more aid mean more development?
Afghanistan	108.83	34	3951
Albania	98.18	3	305
Algeria	10.99	0	390
Angola	27.41	1	241
Anguilla	327.19
Antigua & Barbuda	85.74	0	4
Argentina	2.53	0	82
Armenia	63.74	4	352
Azerbaijan	23.19	1	225
Bangladesh	8.41	2	1502
Barbados	-7.33		14
Belarus	4.38	0	83
Belize	46.74	2	23
Benin	41.09	9	470
Bhutan	140.91	8	89
Bolivia	62.98	4	476
Bosnia & Herzegovina	133.85	3	443
Botswana	38.61	1	104
Brazil	1.02	0	297
Burkina Faso	47.21	14	930
Burundi	46.42	50	466
Cambodia	37.26	8	672
Cameroon	23.2	9	1933
Cape Verde	316.89	12	163
Central African Republic	22.72	10	176
Chad	37.43	6	352
Chile	9.24	0	120
China	1.32	0	1439
Colombia	11.34	0	731
Comoros	31.62	10	44
Congo	401.33	2	127
Congo, Dem Rep of	31.1
Cook Islands	554.2		9
Costa Rica	6.67	0	53
Cote d'Ivoire	6.38
Croatia	26.82	0	164
Cuba	7.78		92
Djibouti	95.52	12	112
Dominica	221.45	6	19
Dominican Republic	8.08	0	128
Ecuador	16.06	1	215
Egypt	12.31	1	1083
El Salvador	29.5	0	88
Equatorial Guinea	80.46	0	31
Eritrea	79.13	13	155
Ethiopia	24.15	12	2422
Fiji	76.83	2	57
Gabon	41.69	1	48
Gambia	35.9
Georgia	67.34	4	382
Ghana	49.08	8	1151
Grenada	424.95	5	23
Guatemala	19.81	1	450
Guinea	20.21	5	224
Guinea-Bissau	49.49	35	123
Guyana	184.83	12	124
Haiti	55.38	11	701
Honduras	99.37	4	464
India	1.52	0	1298
Indonesia	10.96	0	796
Iran	1.43
Iraq	767.25		9115
Jamaica	13.25	0	26
Jordan	105.73	3	504
Kazakhstan	11.48	0	202
Kenya	21.19	4	1275
Kiribati	302.16	21	27
Korea, North	3.43
Kyrgyzstan	40.28	8	274
Lao People's Democratic Republic	50.37
Lebanon	61.04	4	939
Lesotho	34.74	7	130
Liberia	68.59	120	696
Libya	3.46
Macedonia, FYR	109.72
Madagascar	49.84	12	892
Malawi	43.32	21	735
Malaysia	1.07	0	200
Maldives	210.33	4	37
Mali	59.54	15	1017
Marshall Islands	996.12	26	52
Mauritania	64.17	13	364
Mauritius	25.73	1	75
Mexico	1.8	0	121
Micronesia	966.31
Moldova	47.34
Mongolia	72.02	6	228
Montserrat	4939.59
Morocco	19.61	2	1090
Mozambique	62.54	26	1777
Myanmar	2.85		190
Namibia	60.17	3	205
Nauru	889.13		26
Nepal	15.72	6	598
Nicaragua	135.31	15	834
Niger	38.83	13	542
Nigeria	45.54	1	2042
Niue	12922.79		15
Oman	2.05		-31
Pakistan	9.69	2	2212
Palau	1164.11	13	22
Palestinian Territory, occupied	288.49
Panama	5.85	-1	-135
Papua New Guinea	43.9	6	317
Paraguay	8.23	1	108
Peru	14.41	0	263
Philippines	6.55	0	634
Rwanda	62.37	22	713
Saint Helena	3523.99
Saint Kitts & Nevis	69.19	1	3
Saint Lucia	67.97	3	24
Saint Vincent & the Grenadines	40.46
Samoa	238.41	8	37
Sao Tome & Principe	208.69	25	36
Saudi Arabia	0.67	0	-131
Senegal	58.52	8	843
Serbia & Montenegro	104.01
Seychelles	219.1	0	3
Sierra Leone	61.45	33	535
Solomon Islands	419.5	67	248
Somalia	28.82		384
South Africa	14.59	0	794
Sri Lanka	59.7	2	589
Sudan	48.43	5	2104
Suriname	97.02	7	151
Swaziland	40.88	2	63
Syria	4.26
Tajikistan	35.98	6	221
Tanzania	38.8
Thailand	-2.85	0	-312
Timor-Leste	172.8
Togo	13.88	5	121
Tokelau	11406.14
Tonga	319.04	13	30
Trinidad & Tobago	-1.62	0	18
Tunisia	37.05	1	310
Turkey	6.33	0	797
Turkmenistan	3.54	0	28
Turks & Caicos Islands	212.6
Tuvalu	856.24		12
Uganda	41.32	16	1728
Ukraine	7.86	0	405
Uruguay	4.21	0	34
Uzbekistan	5.85	1	166
Vanuatu	183.08	13	57
Venezuela	1.79	0	71
Vietnam	22.18
Wallis & Futuna	4776.84
Yemen	14.28	1	225
Zambia	82.28	10	1045
Zimbabwe	28.02		465

More readings:
SIPRI 2011 yearbook - chapter 4 military expenditure
Unintended Consequences: Does Aid Promote Arms Races?
World Military Expenditures. A compilation of data and facts related to military spending, education and health
Pacifists site against the DSEI
Disarm DSEI
Worldmeters military spending