In 1972, members of the Development Assistance Committee of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development agreed to soften the terms of aid committed to recipient countries by setting an 84 percent target grant component in their official development assistance, with even lighter terms for the least developed countries. It was only a year earlier that the United Nations had introduced a similar concept.
By 1978, the final targets — at least 86 percent of aid should be in the form of grants, while for LDCS, at least 90 percent of annual assistance should have a grant element — were set by the OECD-DAC.
More than three decades since, while most ODA now comes in the form of grants, loans still make up a significant component of aid.
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About the author
Anna Patricia Valerio
Anna Patricia Valerio is a former Manila-based development analyst who focused on writing innovative, in-the-know content for senior executives in the international development community. Before joining Devex, Patricia wrote and edited business, technology and health stories for BusinessWorld, a Manila-based business newspaper.
