Official development assistance, or ODA, is falling for the first time in years. It reached a peak of $223.45 billion in 2023, but fell back to $207.6 billion in 2024. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, is predicting a similar or greater drop this year.
The immediate cause is a shifting political situation, most dramatically in the United States — where President Donald Trump has moved to decimate the aid budget since his inauguration in January — but also elsewhere, with cuts taking place across many Western donors.
At the same time, the aid model has increasingly come under fire for perceived inefficiencies and inequitable power dynamics.