Official Development Assistance

Summary of Official Development Assistance

Financial and technical assistance provided by the governments of industrial nations to less developed nations. This assistance may be provided on a bilateral or multilateral basis, but always emanates from the governmental (i.e., official) sector, as compared with assistance provided by nongovernmental entities, e.g., Red Cross, CARE, and religious groups.

(Main Author: William J. Miller)

Official development assistance (ODA)

Official development assistance (ODA), or official aid, consists of grants or loans by the official sector to countries or territories on the official recipient list of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, or to multilateral agencies. Its main objective is to promote economic development and welfare in the recipient countries

In addition to ODA, total development financing also includes net disbursements, other official flows and private flows

Other official flows are transactions that do not meet eligibility requirements for ODA, either because they are not primarily aimed at development, or because the grant component is below 25 %.

Social infrastructure and services – ODA

Aid for social infrastructure and services covers basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation. The proportion of bilateral ODA dedicated to these is one of the indicators used to measure progress towards Millennium Development Goal 8, 'develop a global partnership for development'.

Resources

Further Information

Official development assistance

Development Assistance Committee (DAC)

Statistical Data

Sustainable development – global partnership

Resources

Further Information

Development Assistance Committee (DAC)

Statistical Data

Sustainable development – global partnership