Increase of Official Development Assistance in 2021
Published on 12/12/2022.
| This article presents the official development assistance figures for the main OECD donors in 2021. For the latest available statistics, please consult this article |
On December 15, 2022, the OECD published the final figures for the amounts allocated by donor countries to Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2021.
ODA issued by members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) reached a historical level of USD 185.9 billion in 2021. This is the highest level ever reached, despite the budgetary pressures that all countries have experienced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Latest intel and analyses.
ODA REACHES A NEW HIGH IN 2021
In 2021, ODA from DAC countries amounted to USD185.9 billion (about EUR 157.1 billion at 2021 exchange rates), an increase of 8.5% in real terms over 2020.
This increase is largely due to support for the Covid-19 pandemic response, particularly in the form of vaccine dose sharing. Excluding the value of vaccines, ODA only increased by 4.8% in real terms compared to 2020.
This amount represents 0.33% of the combined gross national income of DAC countries in 2021, the same level as in 2020. This ratio remains far below the 0.7% GNI/ODA target, which was adopted back in… 1970 by the United Nations.
Only Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Denmark allocate at least 0.7% of their national wealth to international solidarity. However, it should be noted that 23 of the 29 DAC countries (in 2021) have increased their ODA compared to 2020, some of them significantly: Italy (+36%), the United States (+29%), South Korea (+21%) and Slovenia (+20%).
An increase in ODA since the adoption of the Sustainable development goals
Since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, net ODA has increased by 25%. ODA budgets increased steadily between 2013 and 2016, when it first peaked, driven in particular by the influx of refugees into Europe, and the associated in-country refugee costs. In 2017, 2018, and 2019, it decreased due to the decline in refugee-related expenditures. In 2020 and again in 2021, ODA reached its highest level on record, driven in part by support in the context of the Covid-19 crisis.
France, fifth largest donor country in volume
France’s aid rose by 5% in 2021 compared to 2020, totalizing USD 15.506 billion (approximately EUR 13,1 billion), or 0.51% of France’s GNI, in line with the financial trajectory adopted by France in 2018 (aiming to progressively reach 0.55% GNI/ODA by 2022).
Most of the increase in French aid is due to an inflow of bilateral and multilateral aid in the form of grants, private sector instruments, and vaccine dose-sharing. These increases offset declines in bilateral loans and in-country refugee costs. However, refugee related expenditure represent 7.5% of its total ODA, compared to an average of 5.2% for DAC countries. Excluding the sharing of Covid-19 vaccine doses, France’s ODA increased by 2.4% between 2020 and 2021, compared to 0.6% for the DAC average.
Despite this increase, France still has a long way to go to reach the 0.7% target. While it remains the fifth largest donor country in volume spent on foreign aid after the United States, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, it ranks seventh in terms of proportion of its gross national income.
Find out more about the final figures for ODA in 2021.
