A review of the OECD-DAC preliminary data factsheet
This factsheet contains an initial analysis of the preliminary official development assistance (ODA) data for 2018, released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) on 10 April 2019.
To compare data against previous years, OECD published ODA figures for 2018, calculated according to previous ‘net ODA’ measure and the new ‘grant equivalent’ measure of ODA.
Key findings from this preliminary data are:
- Headline ODA has fallen (second year in a row) – down by US$4.1 billion (2.7%) on the net ODA measure and by US$2.5 billion (1.6%) according to the new measure
- Lower in-donor refugee costs (IDRCs) is the largest single factor in this fall; however there were also large falls in net ODA from the US and Japan between 2017 and 2018, which were not principally driven by a fall in IDRCs
- ODA to the least developed countries (LDCs) fell by more than 3% and ODA to Africa was down by 4% – in both cases a steeper fall than ODA overall
- The new rules cause Japan’s 2018 ODA to appear much higher compared with ODA calculated according to the previous rules – however, the new rules make Germany’s 2018 ODA appear significantly lower
- Only five DAC members achieved an ODA-GNI ratio of 0.7% or higher – the same as in 2017 and one fewer than 2016
- There are very wide disparities between the level of concessionality attached to loans from different donors
- The UK reported by far the greatest amount of PSIs in their ODA figures – over US$1 billion. The vast majority of this was in the form of a capital injection to CDC, the UK’s development finance institution (DFI)
