On April 12, 2023, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) released their preliminary figures concerning total Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending in 2022 by member nations.
According to preliminary data, the total expenditure on ODA from member countries of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in 2022 amounted to US $204 billion in real terms (i.e. adjusted for both inflation and exchange rate fluctuations). Out of this total, $201.4 billion was in the form of grants, loans to sovereign entities, debt relief, and contributions to multilateral institutions while $800 million was spent on development-oriented private sector instrument vehicles, and the remaining $1.7 billion was in the form of loans and/or equities given to private sector companies.
As total ODA spending in 2021 was $179 billion, the 2022 numbers represent an astonishing 13.6% increase in real terms, making 2022 the fourth year in a row to surpass record levels and one of the highest-ever rates of growth recorded in the history of measuring ODA. The total spend of $204 billion in ODA was calculated to have represented 0.36% of the member nation’s GNI (Gross National Income) as compared to 0.33% in 2021.
Refugee costs and aid to Ukraine
The historic year-on-year increase in ODA spend was almost entirely due to the inclusion of refugee costs as “development assistance” (first formalized in 2016) in which $29.3 billion was spent in 2022 by OECD member nations. Indeed, refugee costs comprised 14.4% of 2022’s ODA spent by member nations.
Another $16.1 billion was exclusively directed to Ukraine, representing 7.8% of total ODA spend in 2022, of which only $1.8 billion was classified as humanitarian aid.
If in-donor refugee costs were eliminated from the total figures for 2022, then total ODA spend for OECD-DAC nations would have been a modest 4.6% increase compared to 2021.
ODA for COVID-19 pandemic
Other important trends revealed in the OECD’s preliminary report on ODA spend in 2022 included a net expenditure of $11.2 billion on COVID-19-related activities, a dramatic 45% decrease compared to the year before. Of that figure, $7 billion was spent on novel coronavirus control (classified as “prevention, treatment, care, and vaccines”) while the rest went to developing countries for economic support needed as the result of fallout from the pandemic.
Additional noteworthy figures from the OECD’s preliminary aid data included $1.53 billion spent by member nations on vaccines (down 74.1% from 2021) based on an assumed price of $6.66 per dose. Humanitarian aid spent in 2022 was $22.3 billion, representing a modest 1% increase year-on-year while net debt relief remained at a near-record low of $61.8 million. Furthermore, contributions to the budgets of international organizations fell from 30% of ODA spend in previous years to 25.4%.
Top aid-donor countries in 2022
In terms of individual countries, the largest contributions came from DAC members: the United States at $55.3 billion (more than 25% of total DAC ODA spend), followed by Germany ($35 billion), Japan ($17.5 billion), France ($15.9 billion) and Great Britain ($15.7 billion). All told members of the G7 provided 75% of all ODA spend from DAC members.
In 2022, only five DAC members met or exceeded the United Nations target of spending 0.7% of GNI on ODA: Denmark (0.7%), Germany (0.83%), Luxembourg (1%), Norway (0.86%) and Sweden (0.9%). However, non-DAC members Turkey and Saudi Arabia are believed to have exceeded the 0.7% of GNI threshold at 0.79% and 0.74% respectively.
A number of DAC members reported extraordinarily large increases in ODA spend year-over-year in 2022, including Austria (+36.2%, mostly on refugees), Belgium (+7% due to an increase in bilateral aid), Czech Republic (+167.1% due to Ukraine and refugees), France (+12.5% due to an increase in aid to sub-Saharan Africa as well as refugees), Poland (+255.6% due to refugees) and Germany (+12% due to refugees and increased contributions to multilateral organization).
Nations which saw a notable decrease in ODA spend in 2022 included Australia (-13.1% due to a drop in Covid-related expenses), New Zealand (-17.2% due to the peculiarities of its three-year budget cycle), Saudi Arabia (-14.3% due to a decrease in bilateral grants), Turkey (-9.2% due to a decrease in humanitarian assistance), the UAE (-5.6% due to a decrease in both bilateral and multilateral ODA) and Hungary (-1.7% due to reduced contributions to international organizations).
As is standard, the OECD’s figures for ODA spend do not include grants, loans, or any form of multilateral or bilateral assistance from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), although figures from the Republic of China (Taiwan) are included. The PRC was a leading contributor of global Covid-19 assistance in 2021, but no public figures are yet available for their contributions to combating the pandemic in 2022. Additionally, while no concrete figures were released, the government in Beijing reported that it forgave more than 23 loans to 17 African countries in 2022 and that it had temporarily suspended debt repayments from Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
