SDG Goal no. 17 – Official Development Assistance

Društvo Bodi svetloba participated at the interactive info-session on the EU’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), in times of Multiple Crises, organized by Slovenian NGO Povod in cooperation with the European Network of Political Foundations on December 14, 2022. This info session was attended by political foundations and civil society organizations based in Slovenia, Montenegro and Germany.

It was a part of the research on  EU’s ODA policies,with case studies of the four Es module to ensure: Enough, Efficient, Equal and correctly Employed ODA, especially considering that the European Union is a key player in international development cooperation.

It was also the introduction to the International Conference: Official Development Assistance (ODA) in the Time of Multiple Crises which focused on the national and EU bilateral ODA quantity and quality, as well as reaching ODA commitments for implementing Agenda 2030 and reaching SDGs.

And what about ODA data? The world’s largest aid-providing governments disbursed $185.9 billion for ODA in 2021, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD.

The figures cover foreign aid from members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee – a donors’ club including wealthy governments from Europe to North America, and Japan to Australia.

In 2021, DAC countries counted at least $12 billion dollars in in-country refugee costs as official development assistance. Some countries claimed as much as 10% of their ODA for refugees on home soil.

Since 2022, Ukraine has been the biggest receiver of Official Development Assistance by far. According to a ranking published by the German-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy, between Januar 24, 2022 , and January 15, 2023, the USA disbursed 12, 06 billion euros in financial aid and 3.72 billion euros in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. In the same period, the EU institutions disbursed  12, 85 billion Euros to Ukraine.

On December 27, 2022, Germany released a detailed report on its entire aid to Ukraine. The government quantifies its total bilateral aid at €5.01 billion as of December 5.

Eastern European countries stand out when measuring aid in percent of donor GDP, and even more so if we add the large costs of hosting Ukrainian refugees. Polish aid amounted to up to 1.5 percent of its GDP, Estonian aid  to 1.07 percent of its GDP, Latvian aid to 1 percent of its GDP and Lithuanian aid to 0.7 percent of its GDP.

The OECD is scheduled to release its preliminary statistics of Official Development Assistance for 2022 in April 2023.

Robin Dewa, Društvo Bodi svetloba, Slovenia

For more about SDG Goal 17 click HERE and HERE.

SDG17 Partnership