Publication of preliminary data on 2013 Official Development Assistance - Hoofdinhoud

European Commission

MEMO

Brussels, 3 April 2013

Publication of preliminary data on 2013 Official Development Assistance

How are the numbers compiled?

The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is the ultimate authority that decides if expenditure reported to it (by member states or other donors) qualifies as Official Development Assistance (ODA). The DAC is currently composed of 29 members: Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, USA, 19 EU Member States and the EU.

Two EU Member States (i.e. Estonia and Hungary) are non-DAC OECD members, while another seven (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Romania) are neither OECD nor DAC members.

The Commission presents individual data on all EU Member States, including on those whose data are not available through DAC. Otherwise the data published by the OECD and by the Commission are identical. The EU uses the same current price figures as presented by DAC in the publication of preliminary figures for 2013, reconverted from USD to EUR using the DAC exchange rate.

There are two differences in analysing the changes in ODA volumes:

The Commission presents and analyses data in Euro values, while the DAC uses US Dollars. As the Euro appreciated by about 3.3% against the US Dollar between 2012 and 2013, the same amount of EUR converted to USD would give a higher figure in 2013 than in 2012. Therefore DAC data in USD in current prices would show a bigger increase in EU28 ODA (from $65.2 to $71.2 billion) than the EU presentation in EUR (from €50.7 to €53.6 billion). This exchange rate difference in evaluation applies for both global figures and individual Member States.

The Commission uses values in nominal terms (current prices) for presenting changes. The DAC presents data both in constant prices and nominal terms, but calculates changes only in constant prices and exchange rates.

Note that ODA to GNI ratios are not affected by the above differences.

In addition to the EU28 ODA presented by the DAC, the Commission also presents the EU collective ODA, which is a sum of the ODA reported by the EU Member States and the additional ODA provided by the EU institutions. Most of the EU institutions' ODA spending is, for the purposes of ODA/GNI reporting, imputed to EU Member States, i.e. Member States data include part of the institutions' spending. The ODA provided through European Investment Bank (EIB) own resources is not imputed to Member States and is additional to the Member States’ ODA.

The total aid of the 28 EU Member States alone rose from €50.7 billion in 2012 to €53.6 billion in 2013, or from 0.39% to 0.41% of GNI. Additional ODA from the own resources of the European Investment Bank contributes to the collective EU amount, bringing it to €56.5 billion.

Why is the data preliminary?

The data presented is based on information that OECD and Commission have received from Member States in recent weeks. Additional information on the details of funds and programmes for 2013 will be reported to and checked by DAC over the course of 2014. Final 2013 ODA figures with detailed breakdown should be published by OECD DAC in December 2014.

For more information:

IP/14/388: Commissioner Piebalgs calls on Member States to intensify efforts to increase development aid

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Table 1: EU28 Official Development Assistance 2004-2013

Table 2: EU ODA 2013-2015

Note: Shaded cells contain projections prepared by the European Commission. All other estimates have been provided by Member States.

Graph 1: State of individual progress towards the 2015 targets

Graph 2: Comparison of EU collective and other donors

Source: OECD/ DAC data for 1995 - 2013 when available; Commission simulation based on information provided by EU Member States or based on agreed EU commitments 2015.