Official Development Assistance or “global aid” is a transfer of money and resources from predominantly richer countries to developing countries to help fight poverty and support economic development.
Explore this page to see how much countries give in global aid, where aid goes, and on what it is spent. The data is pulled from the official OECD-Development Assistance Committee (DAC) statistics on aid flows.
Key Numbers
- In 2023, aid totalled
US$223.3 billion, a1.6 %increase from the previous year. - DAC donors invested
0.37%of their Gross National Income (GNI) as aid. They wereUS$196 billionoff their commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI. - Aid to African countries totalled
US$59.7 billionin 2023, or 26.8% of aid. - In 2023,
16.1%of aid went to low-income countries,23.3%to lower-middle income,21.8%to upper middle income, and0.2%to high-income countries. - Health sectors received
10.3%of aid, orUS$24.1 billion. Humanitarian was13.7%of aid, orUS$32.3 billionin 2023.
How much do countries give in aid?
In the last sixty years, total aid has grown nearly six-fold, from US$38 billion in 1960 to US$223.3 billion in 2023. But the financing needs to solve these global problems are much greater: to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in low-income and lower-middle income countries will likely cost between $1.4 trillion to $3 trillion per year.
From 2022 to 2023, total aid increased by 1.6 % in real terms.
Over the last decade, aid as a share of national income (ODA/GNI) has barely risen, going from 0.31% in 2010 to 0.37% in latest_year.
In the past two years, the war in Ukraine has significantly affected ODA flows, through both a record high in 'in-donor refugee costs' as well as aid to Ukraine.
Excluding both of those categories, and excluding remaining COVID-19 related aid spending, total ODA from DAC countries has decreased by 2% since 2019 (compared with the officially-reported 33.7% increase)
Aid to Ukraine now represents more than 12% of total ODA from DAC countries. In real terms, donors provided 13 times more aid to Ukraine in 2023 than they did in 2021.
Source: DAC Table 2a, Creditor Reporting System CRS
In 1970, most countries agreed on a United Nations target of giving 0.7% of national income in aid (ODA/GNI). As recently as 2005 and again in 2015, European Union countries recommitted to this target. However, very few countries have achieved 0.7% since that time, and even fewer have maintained it.
If all countries gave 0.7% ODA/GNI, there would be US$196 billion additional aid available.
Where does aid go?
Aid is given by rich countries directly to countries in need. Or it can be given to a multilateral institution - such as the World Bank or UN - which passes on aid to countries and projects. As more and more aid is being spent in donor countries (unspecified aid), aid to other regions is decreasing.
Source: OECD CRS
What is aid spent on?
Global aid supports a wide range of projects across sectors, from helping people living in poverty meet basic needs – such as humanitarian aid, health, and emergency food aid – to helping countries develop and grow their economies – such as aid to education, infrastructure, and energy.