2023 aid data exposes urgent need for more democratic governance of development cooperation
- Despite a slight increase in overall ODA (1.6 per cent in real terms), today’s aid figures show less than a quarter goes to the world’s poorest.
- The governance of development cooperation urgently needs to be reformed at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in June.
16 January 2025, Brussels: Final aid figures released by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC) today show a small increase in total aid spent in 2023, amounting to 0.37 per cent GNI - far below the 0.7 per cent target.
The biggest falls came in EU Member States with only four meeting the 0.7 per cent target. Additionally, some only met this target due to the more than US$ 30.52 billion (13.7 per cent of total ODA) that stayed in wealthy countries because they were reported as in-donor refugee costs.
ODA destined to the world’s poorest accounted for just 24.2 percent of total aid. While this is a slight increase from the year previous, it is still far below the 0.15-0.2 per cent GNI target for aid to Least Developed Countries.
Furthermore, Country Programmable Aid (CPA), or aid that ends up in global south countries - in their budgets and to be used for their development priorities - has declined. This comes in contrast to an increase in the share of tied aid (where donors require that their aid is used to procure goods and services from suppliers in the country providing that aid) to nearly 12 per cent.
Matthew Simonds, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer, said: “On the surface today’s figures paint a far more positive picture of Official Development Assistance than they deserve. While there are some welcome shifts in the numbers for 2023, they are far too little. It remains highly problematic that donor countries are continuing to turn inwards and become recipients of their own aid, either through in-donor refugee costs, by supporting their own private sector, or by tying their aid. We urgently need greater ambition and political will to preserve the integrity of ODA and fulfil the long-standing commitment to allocate 0.7 per cent of GNI to ODA.
“The root of the problem lies in the governance of aid, which is highly undemocratic. Developing country governments must be given a seat at the table. The future of aid governance must allow for global south participation equally and more inclusive spaces for genuine consultation with civil society. Looking to the future, there is an opportunity with the Fourth Conference on Financing for Development for the aid community to align rich countries’ behaviour with the aid effectiveness principles that they have agreed to, instead of further diluting them. For this, we need a Convention on International Development Cooperation which can establish a new normative and governance framework under the auspices of the UN.”
ENDS
Media contact: Julia Ravenscroft, Communications Manager: [email protected]
Notes to editors:
- The final data for Official Development Assistance can be found at: https://public.flourish.studio/story/2786612/
- In addition to the details listed above, the data shows that CPA declined 3 per cent from the prior year and amounted to US$ 76.9 billion, a historically low share at 43.7 per cent of bilateral ODA.
- New rules from 2023 that provide a framework on how to count money going to the private sector as aid did not result in major increases in ODA through Private Sector Instruments (PSI) and instead there was a decline to just under US$ 2.8 billion or 1.3 per cent of ODA going through PSI.
- A critical analysis by Eurodad of the preliminary ODA figures for 2023 can be found here: https://www.eurodad.org/oda_analysis_2023
- More information on the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development can be found here and here.