The European Union remains world’s leading donor of Official Development Assistance with €75.2 billion in 2019
The collective Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the European Union and its Member States amounted to €75.2 billion in 2019, representing 55.2% of global assistance, according to preliminary figures released today by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC).
The EU’s and its Member States collective assistance represented 0.46% of EU Gross National Income (GNI), slightly lower than the 0.47% in 2018, but remains significantly above the 0.21% average of the non-EU members of the DAC .
Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said: “As the world’s leading donor of Official Development Assistance, the EU is saving lives, building stronger economies and protecting the planet for the benefit of millions throughout the world. However, I am concerned that our collective effort on GNI is at its lowest since 2016. I call on all Member States and all development actors to re-double their efforts. The current coronavirus crisis shows how interdependent we all are and how important it is to step up support to our partner countries as Team Europe.”
In 2019, three EU Member States met their ODA commitments of providing 0.7% or more of their GNI in ODA: Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark as well as the United Kingdom.
All in all, 17 Member States have increased their ODA in nominal terms compared to 2018: Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania, Slovenia, Spain as well as the UK. The following Member States increased their ODA/GNI ratio by at least 0.01 percentage points: Austria, Cyprus, Finland, France, Luxembourg and Malta. However, the ODA to GNI ratio decreased in 8 Member States by at least 0.01: Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Sweden.
The EU’s ODA to Least Developed Countries increased for the second consecutive year in 2018, to €19.8 billion, i.e. 0.125% of GNI in 2018. Figures for 2019 will only be known in December. In 2018, EU28 ODA to Africa increased by 4.3% and reached EUR 25 billion.
Beyond ODA, the EU is helping partner countries to make the most of the diverse financing sources available to support implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The EU has been instrumental in bringing together aid, investment, trade, domestic resource mobilisation and policies designed to unlock the full potential of all financial flows. The EU has played a key role in the Integrated National Financing Frameworks, to design financing strategies for sustainable development from all sources of finance. Through the European External Investment Plan, the EU is on track to leverage over €47 billion in investment for Africa and our neighbourhood. The European Fund for Sustainable Development guarantee in particular plays a key role in unlocking additional finance for partner countries. The EU also supports partner countries to improve tax collection and public spending.