Foreign aid received
What you should know about this indicator
- Official development assistance (ODA) eligibility criteria are based on (i) country eligibility, (ii) concessionality, and (iii) the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as the main objective. This means that (i) only countries and territories included in the list of ODA recipients are eligible to receive this assistance, (ii) lending is defined by minimum requirements according to the income category of the recipient country, and (iii) reporting rules have been implemented to define what is "primarily developmental".
- Disbursements refer to money actually given/received, which can differ from what was originally pledged. These are also net disbursements: grants and loans are valued in the same way by recording the flows of cash that were granted, or the face value of loans that were lent to developing countries, deducting any repayments on the loans. The method does not reflect actual efforts by donor countries: a grant represents a bigger effort than a loan; and a loan with a very low interest rate and a long repayment period represents a bigger effort than a loan with a higher interest rate and a short repayment period. From 2018, headline figures from the OECD are based on the grant-equivalent methodology, which is a more accurate reflection of the effort made by donor countries.
- The data is measured in constant 2022 US$ – this adjusts for inflation.
- The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) mantains a list of territories where ODA can be provided. The countries and territories on the DAC list of ODA recipients consist of all low and middle income countries based on gross national income (GNI) per capita as published by the World Bank, with the exception of former G8 members, EU members, and countries with a firm date for entry into the EU. The list also includes all of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as defined by the United Nations. The list is updated every three years and is available in the OECD website.
Sources and processing
This data is based on the following sources
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Citations
How to cite this page
To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:
“Data Page: Foreign aid received”. Our World in Data (2024). Data adapted from OECD. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/foreign-aid-received-by-income-group [online resource]
How to cite this data
In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
OECD (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Full citation
OECD (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Foreign aid received – Official donors” [dataset]. OECD, “OECD Official Development Assistance (ODA) - DAC2A: Aid (ODA) disbursements to countries and regions” [original data]. Retrieved October 3, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/foreign-aid-received-by-income-group