Interactive: Which sectors received the most aid in 2022?
What sectors were prioritized by Development Assistance Committee member countries in 2022 — and which areas received the largest portion of bilateral aid?
Last year, Devex wrote about which countries receive the most aid. This year, we’re looking at spending not by geographic location, but by cause: which sectors do donors spend the most resources on? Devex has drawn on data collected from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to see where exactly the money was spent. OECD uses the Creditor Reporting System to track the overall official development assistance, or ODA, spending of official donors. The reporting system is not intended specifically for aid; it’s used to track a wide range of spending by OECD members. As a result, some work is needed to divide the figures into categories that are useful for development. The figures from OECD are in 2021 U.S. dollar constant prices. This allows year-on-year comparisons with respect to changes in exchange rates and inflation rates. OECD measures both how much aid is committed and how much is actually delivered. The figures below are based on the latter — gross disbursements. The data show several areas where there were significant disbursements, including health, education, and government and civil society — a broad category spanning everything from funding public administration to clearing land mines. It also shows significant spending on humanitarian aid and refugees — two areas that have attracted growing amounts of funding since the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Broad categories Altogether, donors spent $217.7 billion ($211 billion in current prices) on aid in 2022. Of this, $52.2 billion went to multilateral agencies such as the United Nations and World Bank. A further $23.7 billion was spent on humanitarian aid, and $31.8 billion on refugees in donor countries. Another $4.1 billion was spent on commodity aid, and a further $328.5 million on debt relief. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1707901242775' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='Official Development Assistance by sector ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Of/OfficialDevelopmentAssistancebysector/ODAbreakdownbysector/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='OfficialDevelopmentAssistancebysector/ODAbreakdownbysector' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Of/OfficialDevelopmentAssistancebysector/ODAbreakdownbysector/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /></object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1707901242775'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px'; var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement);</script> <i style=font-style: georgia;”>DAC member countries’ ODA by sector from 2018 to 2022, based on OECD.</i> In focus: sector-allocable aid Around $109.7 billion of ODA was classified as sector-allocable aid. This refers to activities that can be linked to a particular sector and which is further classified into four main categories: social infrastructure and services, economic infrastructure and services, production sectors, and multisector or cross-cutting. More than half of the total in 2022 went to social infrastructure and services, worth $64 billion. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1707901270273' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='Official Development Assistance by purpose ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Of/OfficialDevelopmentAssistancebypurpose/ODAbypurpose/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='OfficialDevelopmentAssistancebypurpose/ODAbypurpose' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Of/OfficialDevelopmentAssistancebypurpose/ODAbypurpose/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /></object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1707901270273'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px'; var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style=font-style: georgia;”>DAC member countries’ ODA by purpose from 2018 to 2022, based on OECD.</i> Social infrastructure and services has six subcategories — education, health, population and reproductive health, water supply and sanitation, government and civil society, and other social infrastructure and services such as employment and housing. Economic infrastructure and services ranked next, with $24 billion in 2022. It has five subcategories — transport and storage, communications, energy, banking and financial services, and business and other services. Around $8.8 billion went to the production sectors, which has three subcategories — agriculture, forestry and fishing; industry, mining and construction; trade and tourism. Meanwhile, $12.9 billion of the total sector-allocable aid in 2022 went to multisector or cross-cutting transactions. The three priority areas in 2022 were government and civil society, health, and education. Donors allocated $21.3 billion in bilateral ODA for government and civil society — a 53.3% rise from 2021. Government and civil society was the top priority area from 2018 to 2022, except in 2021, where it was overtaken by health. Of the activities under government and civil society, around 42.9% of the allocation in 2022, worth $9.1 billion, went to what OECD calls public sector policy and administrative management — largely funding to governments to carry out their administrative functions. Other key areas in this category were civilian peace building, conflict prevention and resolution, with $2.1 billion; democratic participation and civil society, with $2 billion; and human rights, with $1.1 billion. Health ranked next, with $16.4 billion in 2022 — up 13.8% from 2021. Meanwhile, health was the top priority area in 2021, with $14.4 billion — driven by pandemic-related expenditures. COVID-19-related aid accounted for 49.3% of the total health bilateral ODA in 2022, worth $8.1 billion. This is up 14.1% from the previous year. Other health priorities included health policy and administrative management, with $2.5 billion; infectious disease control, with $1.6 billion; and basic health care, with $1 billion. Education was also among the priorities, with $10.3 billion in 2022 — virtually unchanged from the previous year. Spending for programs in higher education accounted for 46.2% of the total in 2022, worth $4.7 billion. Then primary education, with $1.5 billion; education policy and administrative management, with $1.1 billion; and vocational training, with $967.9 million. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free five-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.
Last year, Devex wrote about which countries receive the most aid. This year, we’re looking at spending not by geographic location, but by cause: which sectors do donors spend the most resources on?
Devex has drawn on data collected from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to see where exactly the money was spent.
OECD uses the Creditor Reporting System to track the overall official development assistance, or ODA, spending of official donors. The reporting system is not intended specifically for aid; it’s used to track a wide range of spending by OECD members. As a result, some work is needed to divide the figures into categories that are useful for development.
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Miguel Tamonan is a Senior Development Analyst at Devex, where he analyzes data from public and private donors to produce content and special reports for Pro and Pro Funding readers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a Major in International Relations from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
