ODA

Today, the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD DAC) published its preliminary figures on the amount of development aid provided in 2021. 

“Keeping already insufficient aid at stagnating levels costs lives and is a moral failure. Again, rich countries have betrayed their promise to the world’s poorest people —a promise to end hunger, invest in life-saving public health systems, and expand education opportunities so nobody is left behind."

The global repercussions of the Ukraine crisis ―already being felt in fast-rising food, commodity and energy prices― could undermine official aid efforts to help people in other humanitarian hot-spots. 

Figures published today by the OECD show that development aid has slightly increased in 2020. While this rise provides a lifeline for millions of people living in poverty around the world, it’s simply not enough. With extreme poverty skyrocketing for the first time in over twenty years and increasing economic and gender inequality exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis, rich countries are facing and failing the biggest test the aid system has seen since its creation 50 years ago, said Oxfam. 

Responding to the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting today, Nadia Daar, Head of Oxfam’s Washington DC Office, said: "The G20 is not delivering on its promise to rebalance the global economy and provide major relief. It has simply extended a freeze on bilateral debt-service payments through year-end, pushing the can down the road once again. If debt cancellation is not part of the solution, the world’s poorest countries will continue to struggle to cope with the pandemic and its devastating effects. 
 

Current levels of aid from rich countries are woefully inadequate to help developing countries face the coronavirus crisis, said Oxfam today in response to new OECD aid figures for 2019.

Aid donors increasingly seek to inject private-sector resources into development by ‘blending’ official development assistance (ODA) with private finance. There is little evidence of the development impact, and projects often do not align with country ownership, transparency and accountability.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development gives business a significant role to play in efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, based on its ability to invest and innovate. This paper explores ways in which companies can provide more meaningful contributions to governments’ commitments to reach the SDGs.

‘Blending’ combines official development assistance with other private or public resources, in order to ‘leverage’ additional funds from other actors. This report aims to clarify what it is, how it works and how it is used, to foster greater understanding of this increasingly prominent development finance mechanism.

The governments of rich states today cleared the way for the diversion of development aid away from the poorest.