Development Assistance Increasing (G8 Background)

OECD - Paris, 8th July 2005

Development Assistance Increasing
(background for a possible G8 outcome at Gleneagles)

Official Development Assistance (ODA) has risen significantly over the last four years with aid to developing countries reaching $78.7 billion in 2004 - a global rise in real terms of 5% since 2003 and about 20% since 2000. The African continent is the largest beneficiary of this recent increase in aid, while assistance to Afghanistan and Iraq also rose substantially in 2004, to $875 million and $2.9 billion respectively.

The trend of increasing development assistance is expected to accelerate markedly in 2005-06 mainly because of debt relief for Iraq of up to $15 billion in 2005 alone. By 2006, ODA might thus reach $96 billion at 2004 prices. The Kananaskis G8 summit in 2002 proposed that half the increase in aid to 2006 should be for African countries with good governance.

For the medium term, OECD’s Development Co-operation Directorate has calculated that existing public announcements by OECD donor governments on their intentions to raise aid imply that ODA might rise by around $46 billion above 2004 levels to reach around $125 billion by 2010. Any new announcements on aid increases by individual donors arising from the Gleneagles Summit would have to be added to these figures.

Charts showing the latest hard aid data for 2004 are attached.

ENDS

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