ODA from members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) totalled USD 152.8 billion in 2019, a rise of 1.4% in real terms from 2018, according to preliminary data collected from official development agencies. The fall in current dollar terms from USD 153.5 billion in 2018 to USD 152.8 billion in 2019, results in part from falls in the exchange rates of some currencies against the United States dollar.
Total ODA in 2019 was equivalent to 0.30% of DAC countries’ combined Gross National Income (GNI), down from 0.31% in 2018 and below a target ratio of 0.7% of ODA to GNI. Five DAC members (the same five as in 2018) met or exceeded the 0.7% target: Denmark (0.71%), Luxembourg (1.05%), Norway (1.02%), Sweden (0.99%) and the United Kingdom (0.70%).
ODA rose in 18 DAC countries, with the largest increases in Austria (+7.4%), Finland (+18.2%), Greece (+11.0%), Hungary (+14.5%), Japan (+7.5%), Korea (+13.9%), Norway (+9.7%) and Slovenia (+5.8%). It fell in 11 countries, most notably in Poland (-7.7%), Portugal (-5.4%) and Sweden (-4.8%), in some cases because of lower spending on refugees.
G7 donors provided 75% of total ODA and DAC-EU countries 55%. ODA from the twenty DAC countries that are EU members was USD 84.5 billion; a slight increase of 0.5% in real terms compared to 2018, and represented 0.47% of their combined GNI.
The United States continued to be the largest DAC donor of ODA (USD 34.6 billion), followed by Germany (USD 23.8 billion), the United Kingdom (USD 19.4 billion), Japan (USD 15.5 billion) and France (USD 12.2 billion).
In-donor refugee costs amounted to USD 10.2 billion in 2019, a fall of 2% in real terms compared to 2018. Excluding these costs, ODA rose by 1.7% in real terms. For six countries, these costs represented 10% or more of their total ODA, and for two of them (Greece and Italy) it was over 20%.
Greece: According to the preliminary data, the Official Development Assistance (ODA) of Greece in the year 2019 amounted to USD 308 million, 0.14% of its Gross National Income (GNI). The bilateral aid amounted to USD 74 million, of which USD 67 million for in-donor refugee costs. Multilateral aid amounted to USD 234 million. Overall, ODA increased by 11% compared to 2018 (USD 290 million, 0.13% of GNI, of which USD 38 million bilateral and USD 252 million multilateral assistance) due to the increase of in-donor refugee costs, which in 2018 amounted to USD 28 million.
More information: http://www.oecd.org/development/oecd-and-donor-countries-working-to-focus-development-efforts-on-covid-19-crisis-building-on-a-rise-in-official-aid-in-2019.htm