Today the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) – the group of countries that regulate how aid should be reported – agreed new rules for reporting debt relief as Official Development Assistance (ODA). Eurodad regrets that donor governments decided to rush an agreement, which allows them to report additional ODA for debt relief.

CSOs are urging donor countries not to change the rules for reporting debt relief as Official Development Assistance (ODA) when they meet this Wednesday (15 July)

The failure of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee’s to agree tough new rules governing aid invested in the private sector - private sector instruments - was criticised by Oxfam and the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) today. 

Debt relief should not be reported as ODA. In the coming weeks, DAC members need to decide what is most important to them: allowing ODA double counting and inflation to create incentives to reward debt relief or upholding the credibility, integrity and solid reputation of DAC statistics.

The rules on how debt relief should be counted as Official Development Assistance are currently being negotiated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) – under the auspices of its Chair Susanna Moorehead – and the Paris Club, which is an informal group of creditor governments. 

The world is facing an unprecedented crisis. As Covid-19 spreads across the globe it threatens to disproportionately hit developing countries.