The level of official development assistance (ODA) – US$146.6 billion in 2017 – from member states of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which includes 20 EU member states, has recorded a 0.6% fall in real terms compared with the previous year. According to preliminary data published by the OECD on Monday 9 April, this fall is due to the decrease in assistance to refugees in the donor countries at a time when aid to the least developed countries has increased by 4% in real terms, to stand at US$26 billion.
Net ODA from the DAC countries accounted last year for barely 0.31% of the cumulative GNI of these countries (compared with 0.32% in 2016). Overall, assistance to refugees has fallen by 13.6% to stand at US$14.2 billion. Last year, the costs of refugees in the donor countries accounted for 9.7% of net ODA contributions, compared with 11% in 2016 (see EUROPE 11767).
Neven Mimica calls for balance to be redressed. The EU's official assistance collectively recorded a fall of 2.4% last year (-€1.9 billion), due mainly to an 80% reduction in the number of debt relief operations by EU member states and an 8% decrease in refugee costs in the EU – costs that fell to €10.3 billion in 2017 (compared with €11.2 billion in 2016), the European Commission states.
With €75.7 billion in ODA last year (0.5% of collective GNI compared with 0.53% in 2016), the EU has done better than the average of DAC countries but is still far from the UN objective of 0.7% of GNI.
In providing 57% of total ODA, the EU and its member states keep their place as leading donor, which European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica is very pleased about. He nevertheless says he is "concerned about the decrease of EU collective ODA and of development assistance worldwide" and says "we need to do more".
Four champions among EU member states. The 0.7% of GNI objective was reached or exceeded by: Sweden (1.01%), Luxembourg (1%), Denmark (0.72%), the UK (0.7%) – and also Norway (0.99%). Germany, which stood at 0.7% for the first time in 2016, has now fallen below this objective – like 24 other DAC donors.
In 2017, Luxembourg did not record any expenditure as regards refugees on its territory, whilst nine countries earmarked over 10% of their ODA to refugees. For Germany, Greece and Italy, this item accounted for over 20% of their ODA.
Net ODA increased in 11 DAC countries, the strongest rises being recorded in France, Italy, Japan and Sweden. By contrast, ODA slumped in 18 DAC countries, the most marked decreases being observed in Australia, Austria (-27.4%), Spain (-45%), Greece (-15.8%), Hungary (-29,7 %) and Slovenia (-10%), as well as in Norway (-10%) and Switzerland (-13.9%).
The provisional OECD data can be consulted online at: https://bit.ly/2HnfTMc . (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)