aid to Egypt and Jordan

"Back in May 2011, at the Deauville summit in France, the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations promised close to $40bn in assistance to Egypt and Tunisia, with the amount set almost to double once Morocco and Jordan were added to the list. The objective at the time was to support the historic change in the Arab world and prevent delicate democratic transitions being derailed by economic failure.  The recipients, however, have been disappointed, receiving much less assistance than they had anticipated. Most frustrated has been Egypt, which received about half of what it was expecting last year... What is also interesting about the figures, however, is that Jordan has received almost as much – $4.9bn – as Egypt ($5.9bn), much of it through bilateral funding. Yet Egypt’s economy is more than 10 times larger than Jordan’s. And, while Egypt’s revolution mesmerised the Arab world, Jordan is taking one step forward and two steps back on its promised political reforms." (thanks Laleh)