section_path: Government and politics/Foreign relations/Foreign aid
section_name: Foreign aid
paragraph_text: Foreign aid
  
  Israel has a history of providing emergency foreign aid and humanitarian response to disasters across the world. In 1955 Israel began its foreign aid programme in Burma and then shifted to Africa. Israel's humanitarian efforts officially began in 1957 with the establishment of Mashav, the Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation. In this early period, whilst Israel's aid represented only a small percentage of total aid to Africa, its programme was effective in creating goodwill; however, following the 1967 war relations soured. Israel's foreign aid programme subsequently shifted its focus to Latin America.
  
  Since the late 1970s Israel's foreign aid has gradually decreased, although in recent years Israel has tried to reestablish aid to Africa. There are additional Israeli humanitarian and emergency response groups that work with the government, including IsraAid, a joint programme run by Israeli organisations and North American Jewish groups, ZAKA, The Fast Israeli Rescue and Search Team, Israeli Flying Aid, Save a Child's Heart and Latet. Between 1985 and 2015, Israel sent 24 delegations of their search and rescue unit the Home Front Command to 22 countries. Currently Israeli foreign aid ranks low among OECD nations, spending less than 0.1% of its GNI on development assistance. The country ranked 38th in the 2018 World Giving Index.