With $153 billion (USD) in 2018, official development assistance (ODA) to the 30 members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) - including 20 EU Member States - fell by 2.7% compared to 2017 and the poorest countries are paying the price, according to preliminary data published by the OECD on Wednesday, 10 April.
These figures are, for the first time, calculated on the basis of the new "grant-equivalent" method, which more accurately records donor effort in the form of development loans. According to the cash-flow basis used so far, ODA in 2018 would have amounted to USD 149.3 billion (-2.7%).
The OECD partly attributes this decline to a decrease in aid for hosting refugees and the tightening of the rules for accounting for such aid as ODA.
Aid to the 47 least developed countries fell by 3 per cent in real terms, aid to Africa by 4 per cent and humanitarian aid by 8 per cent.
153 billion USD is 0.31% of the combined GNI of the DAC countries, a stable figure compared to 2017 (see EUROPE 11998/17), but far from the UN target of 0.7% of GNI. 17 countries have increased their aid and 12 have reduced it.
The EU still provides more than half of total ODA. G7 countries provided three-quarters of total ODA, on a grant-equivalent basis. The EU DAC countries contributed 56.5% of the total, or 0.47% of their combined GNI.
Within the EU, the champions are Sweden (1.04%), followed by Luxembourg (0.98%), the United Kingdom and Denmark (both 0.7%). The Netherlands and Germany are at 0.61%.
Below the European average are Ireland (0.31%), Finland (0.36%), France (0.43%) and, far behind, Slovakia, Greece, the Czech Republic and Poland.
The largest decreases were recorded in Austria, Finland, Greece, Italy and Portugal. On the other hand, Hungary is one of the countries whose aid has increased the most.
The United States remains the largest donor (USD 34.3 billion), followed by Germany (USD 25 billion), the United Kingdom (USD 19.4 billion), Japan (USD 14.2 billion) and France (USD 12.2 billion).
See statistics: https://bit.ly/2UskHtn. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)