Next month the Development Assistance Committee within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development — the body responsible for defining and tracking official development assistance — will hold a high-level meeting in Paris to discuss, among other things, how the Syrian refugee crisis is changing ODA flows and what can be done about it.
“Let’s set the most important issue straight,” Erik Solheim, chair of the OECD-DAC and a former minister of environment and international development in his native Norway, told Devex during a recent interview in Washington, D.C. “We need a lot more development assistance as well as a lot more investment for the poorer parts of the world to avoid the pressure on Europe.”
2014’s aid data — released in early January by the OECD — will guide the talks, and have revealed a few key trends: While aid has increased overall across member countries, it hasn’t kept pace with economic growth. So while national budgets are increasing, aid budgets as a percentage of gross national income are on a downturn.
About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.
