International aid from member countries and associates of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) dropped by 23.1% in real terms in 2025 compared to 2024, marking the largest annual decline in the history of official development assistance (ODA), according to a press release published by the OECD on April 9, 2026. Total ODA by DAC members and associates reached USD 174.3 billion, or 0.26% of their combined gross national income (GNI). This contraction brings ODA to levels last recorded in 2015, when the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted.
In 2024, DAC members provided USD 214.6 billion in ODA, representing 0.34% of GNI. The five largest providers in 2025 were Germany (USD 29.1 billion), the United States (USD 29.0 billion), the United Kingdom (USD 17.2 billion), Japan (USD 16.2 billion), and France (USD 14.5 billion). Germany became the largest provider of ODA for the first time. This was also the first year on record in which all five top providers reduced their ODA, accounting for 95.7% of the total overall decline. ODA provided by the United States declined by 56.9%.
Eight of the 34 DAC members maintained or increased their ODA in 2025, while four countries exceeded the UN target of 0.7% ODA to GNI: Denmark (0.72%), Luxembourg (0.99%), Norway (1.03%), and Sweden (0.85%). Bilateral ODA for core development programming — excluding in-donor refugee costs, humanitarian aid, and debt relief — fell by 26.3%, the largest decline on record. Humanitarian aid and ODA to cover refugee costs within donor countries also fell by 35.8% and 22.1%, respectively. Bilateral ODA to Ukraine fell by 38.2% to USD 10.3 billion, though when including outflows from EU institutions, it rose by 18.7% to USD 44.9 billion — the largest volume of ODA ever provided to a single country.
OECD DAC Chair Carsten Staur responded directly to the figures:
“It’s deeply concerning to see this huge drop in ODA in 2025, due to dramatic cuts among the very top donors. Other DAC members are also facing budgetary, security-related or political pressures, while a few are countering the trend.”
He added that the world faces growing humanitarian needs and mounting pressure on the poorest and most fragile countries. OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann noted that “the significant decline in official development assistance highlights the need to maximise the impact of available resources, and to use them more effectively to unlock new sources of investment.”
Based on a survey of DAC members and official published information, the OECD projects a further 5.8% decline in ODA in 2026. Final 2025 data, forthcoming in December 2026, will confirm whether the trend of members relying more heavily on the multilateral system to support least developed countries is maintained.
More detailed ODA statistics and a full breakdown for 2025 are available at the OECD data explainer page.
