official development assistance

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

financial flows provided by governments and multilateral institutions to developing countries and multilateral organisations, meeting the criteria of being administered with the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as its main objective and being concessional in character with a grant element of at least 25 percent; ODA is measured and reported by members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee, and the longstanding international target is for rich countries to contribute 0.7 percent of gross national income as ODA — a target met consistently by only a handful of donors including the Nordic countries and the United Kingdom under the 2015 International Development Act; the effectiveness of ODA has been debated intensively since the 1990s, with critics including Dambisa Moyo arguing that aid has perpetuated dependency and undermined governance, while defenders cite evidence that well-targeted ODA in health, education, and humanitarian response has contributed to measurable improvements in human welfare