Donor countries continued their drive “to modernize the statistical system underpinning development cooperation,” as they put it in an official statement, during last week’s high-level meeting of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, France.
Hailed as “historic,” the agreement that emerged from the meeting included a compromise to establish a grant equivalent calculation for concessional loans. The meeting also marked progress on two other high-profile initiatives. One is the creation of standards to measure private sector contributions to development. The other involves efforts to design a more expansive measurement for aid, known provisionally as Total Official Support for Sustainable Development. Donor countries also agreed to focus more resources on the least developed countries.
The most important deal was the pact on grant equivalents for concessional loans.