Wealthy donor nations are failing to act on calls to cut the record amounts of aid they are spending at home on housing asylum seekers, which continues to swallow up almost $1 in every $7 of declared assistance.
A 2023 plea from the head of OECD’s Development Assistance Committee — which oversees Official Development Assistance, or ODA, rules — urged its members to “act on the side of caution” before allocating aid to in-donor refugee costs, or IDRC.
But official figures released by DAC show the dial barely budged in 2023 when 14.6% of all ODA spent by its members went on domestic refugee costs. In 2002, the proportion was 14.7%.