As high-level aid officials gather this week in Paris for OECD Development Week, one of the hot topics on the agenda is whether donors — many of which are still struggling to meet their pledges to spend 0.7 percent of gross national income on official development assistance — may soon face additional targets to encourage directing more ODA to low-income countries, financing for global public goods, and other goals.
The discussion is taking place within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee, the main body responsible for defining and measuring aid, which is seeking a consensus by the end of the year on modernizing the current definition of ODA.
According to Erik Solheim, chair of DAC, the specifics of any new targets — or a combination thereof — are still far from any agreement, and an “overall reluctance” to add more goals to the 0.7 percent benchmark persists.