What this covers: the main indicators of how much a donor prioritises development finance overall and how it allocates ODA across sectors, themes, and channels: ODA/GNI, sector shares and the bilateral/multilateral split.

Concepts and definitions

ODA as a percentage of GNI

ODA/GNI is the primary measure of a donor's overall effort. It expresses total ODA as a share of the donor's gross national income in the same year.

Calculation: total ODA (grant equivalent) in year i / GNI in year i.

It is useful for assessing a donor's political commitment to development finance, its progress against the UN target of 0.7% of GNI, and whether its effort is rising or falling independently of the size of its economy. The 0.7% target comes from a UN General Assembly resolution and is the standard international benchmark. A secondary target of 0.15–0.20% of GNI applies to ODA to least developed countries.

ODA/GNI measures effort relative to economic size. A small donor with a high ratio may disburse less in absolute terms than a large donor with a low ratio.

The grant equivalent system became the OECD headline standard beginning with 2018 data. Earlier years use net flows, which subtract loan repayments. Grant equivalent counts a loan at its grant element only. For loan-heavy donors the two bases differ, in a direction that depends on their repayments, so ODA/GNI figures before and after 2018 are not directly comparable.

A purpose as a percentage of total ODA

This is the standard measure of whether a sector or issue is a strategic priority for a donor, and of how its sectoral priorities shift over time.

Calculation: bilateral + earmarked + imputed multilateral ODA for the purpose code or set of codes in year i / bilateral + earmarked + multilateral ODA in year i.

It can be narrowed by channel, provided the denominator is narrowed the same way.

A purpose as a percentage of ODA to a sector

This measures how a donor prioritises an issue within a broader sector, such as malaria within health or primary education within education.

Calculation: bilateral + earmarked + imputed multilateral ODA for the purpose code or set of codes in year i / bilateral + earmarked + multilateral ODA for the parent sector in year i.

Bilateral or multilateral ODA as a percentage of total ODA

This measures how a donor splits its ODA between direct delivery to recipients and delivery through multilateral organisations.

Calculation: bilateral or multilateral ODA in year i / bilateral + earmarked + multilateral ODA in year i.

In these formulas, bilateral means bilateral ODA excluding earmarked funding, so the three terms do not overlap.

Donors give different reasons for their channel mix, such as control over targeting and visibility for bilateral aid, or pooled resources and lower transaction costs for multilateral aid. The split shows how a donor delivers its ODA. The reasons come from the donor's own policy documents rather than the data.

Earmarked funding is reported as bilateral ODA under OECD rules but is channelled through multilateral organisations, and common usage of "bilateral" treats it inconsistently. Whether it counts as bilateral or multilateral materially changes the split.

Choosing an indicator

ODA/GNI helps assess overall effort, sector shares of total ODA are a good fit for assessing whether an issue is a priority, sub-sector shares of a sector can help answer questions about priorities within a field, and the bilateral/multilateral split fits questions about delivery. A question that pairs a headline figure with a granular breakdown often needs a different indicator for each part.

Pitfalls

• A percentage is wrong when its denominator does not fully contain its numerator in scope, channel, and filter. A common case is a numerator of bilateral allocable ODA over a denominator of total ODA.
• Treating earmarked funding as plainly bilateral or plainly multilateral hides a choice that moves the split.
• ODA/GNI series that extend across 2018 mix net flow and grant equivalent figures.

What makes a result verifiable

A result is verifiable when it names the indicator and the reason for it, defines the numerator and denominator with the channels and filters each covers, states whether earmarked funding is included in any bilateral/multilateral split, and flags the 2018 break when the period crosses 2018 for a donor with significant loans.