The year in data: 10 numbers that defined development in 2023

It’s been another challenging year for the development sector. A growing number of serious conflicts have demanded ever more of the aid budget. There’s gridlock over aid spending in key legislatures. The world continues to face significant economic challenges around inflation and debt. And progress on climate action remains slow. We’ve pulled out 10 numbers that help define what happened this year. 1. $204 billion — Total ODA in 2022 There are no figures yet for official development assistance, or ODA, in 2023, but we can at least look at the figures for 2022. The total amount of ODA rose by 13.6% in real terms in 2022, compared to the year before. But that tells a misleading story, as much of the increase was driven by an increase in in-donor refugee costs, driven by the exodus of people fleeing Ukraine. Excluding those figures, the increase was 4.6%. Total ODA is equivalent to 0.36% of donors’ combined national incomes — about half the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, target. This is higher than the previous year, but it remains to be seen if this uplift will be sustained if refugee spending falls. A significant issue is that more demands are being placed on this pot of funding. Donors are being asked for more cash to deal with humanitarian issues, and more cash to tackle climate-related challenges, too, and have also had to allocate substantial additional funds to refugee costs at home, so cumulatively there is significantly less for traditional development work. One interesting thing to note: The high-income oil-producing nations of the Gulf are getting in on the act when it comes to giving; Saudi Arabia — which is not a member of the Development Assistance Committee and is therefore not counted in ODA — nonetheless contributed almost $6 billion, enough to put it in the small club of nations to hit the OECD target of 0.7% of GNI. 2. 37% — The amount contributed to U.N. humanitarian plans This has been a dismal year for humanitarian aid. More people needed help than ever before — 363 million, according to Martin Griffiths, the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or UNOCHA. And the funds needed to help them were higher than ever, at $56.7 billion, according to the recently published Global Humanitarian Overview 2024. But of that money, only $21.2 billion has far been received. It’s the culmination of years of problems, beginning with the 2020 pandemic. Need has roughly doubled from pre-pandemic levels. Funding has never reached the levels that UNOCHA has said is needed, but it has in previous years at least kept pace to some extent with the rising demand, but this year it has fallen off a cliff. We don’t know the exact reasons but we can say that aid is incredibly dependent on a single donor — the United States — which has this year experienced well-publicized issues in getting aid spending past its recalcitrant legislature. See also the section on Germany, the second largest humanitarian donor, below. 3. 27 months — How long it takes for the World Bank to approve a project World Bank President Ajay Banga has set several key targets for reform, and one of them is to get projects approved 33% faster — in 18 months rather than the current 27. It would also be possible to pick out a number of other figures to measure World Bank reform, including the $100 billion-plus IDA replenishment that Banga is aiming for, or the $150 billion extra he hopes to create over the next decade by making better use of the existing balance sheet. The long-term target of all the reforms is recapitalization. Banga has been told by the Group of Seven major economies he has to jump through some hoops before he asks for more money, and he’s made it clear he plans to do so, and then return for more cash. 4. 135 — Aid workers killed in Gaza At the time of writing the war in Gaza is a little over two months old. It has displaced 1.4 million people and led to more than 19,500 casualties in Gaza, as well as 1,200 in Israel, almost all during the initial Hamas attack two months ago. One statistic that stands out, however, is the fact that the first month of the war was the deadliest on record for United Nations staff. According to the most recent statistics the death toll is more than 135. 5. $7.9 billion — The amount of humanitarian aid given in cash Each year, more aid is given out in cash. Once again, we don’t have figures for 2023, but in the preceding year, cash support rose 41% in a single year to $10 billion, of which $7.9 billion reached those in need of support. That’s more than 20% of all aid. But advocates say that this progress is still too slow. And the rapid growth in the humanitarian sector has not been mirrored in the much larger development sector, where there is such little spending that no official data exists. Estimates produced by GiveDirectly, which champions humanitarian spending in development, suggest that somewhere between 3% and 5% of all development aid is given out in cash. 6. 5 million — The number of cases of dengue fever in 2023 The year 2023 has seen a historical record for the number of cases of dengue fever, 18% more than the cases observed in 2019, the previous record year, according to recently released figures. Cases are dropping for many of the world’s biggest killers. HIV, for example, is down by more than 50% from its peak, and malaria deaths have dropped by around 30% from the turn of the century. So it is interesting, and worrying, to see an infectious disease where cases are heading so fast in the opposite direction. The increase in dengue is linked to changes in climate, with changes creating more hospitable conditions for the mosquitoes that carry it. 7. €12.2 billion — The budget of BMZ, Germany’s main aid department Germany is the world’s second-largest donor. It’s also one of the most generous. Furthermore, German aid is currently higher than historical levels, because it is one of the relatively few countries that does not offset refugee costs against ODA, as well as one of the most generous countries when it comes to taking in Ukrainian refugees. But it is cutting back. This year’s budget for BMZ, its largest aid provider, is €193 million ($211,8 million) less than the previous year. And next year’s budget looks likely to be less again. This outlook is problematic, since the development sector is extremely dependent on a handful of bilateral donors, with just five countries contributing 68% of all funds. Major cuts have already taken place in the U.K. and the long-term outlook for U.S. aid may not be positive. A downturn in German support looks likely to leave aid under further pressure at a point when demands are increasing steadily on multiple fronts. 8. 33% — The percentage of its budget WFP has so far managed to raise The World Food Programme is embattled on multiple fronts. Its director Cindy McCain faces clear internal division over Gaza, and it has faced major outbreaks of theft in many of its most crucial locations. Meanwhile, as mentioned above, humanitarian aid peaked at hitherto-unseen levels in 2023. On the back of this, it’s worrying that WFP has raised only $7.8 billion of its budget — roughly a third of what it says is needed, and only just over half its 2022 income of $14.1 billion. The result has been huge ration cuts across scores of countries, and widespread international hunger has been left unchecked. 9. 14 — The number of good practice indicators USAID will use to measure its local leadership targets USAID closed out 2023 by announcing it had finally set metrics to measure one of its key targets — to have 50% of its programs locally led by 2030. This target was announced two years ago in a key speech by Administrator Samantha Power, which has been widely referenced ever since. But while there has been significant scrutiny of the other main target announced in that speech — to have 25% of funds reach local entities within five years — this one has flown under the radar. Now, belatedly, USAID is trying to quantify it. The 14 good practices USAID will use include things like “co-creating with local partners” and “conducting evaluations with local experts.” They are grouped into four categories. A program will count toward the target if it follows any two of these good practices, across at least two categories. Only USAID officials will report against the measures, and a pilot is currently underway. 10. Zero — Financial targets in the climate adaptation framework agreed at COP 28 The United Nations Climate Change Conference came and went, and it delivered some progress on key issues, although a final agreement to “transition away” from fossil fuels must have entirely pleased no one. One of the key outcomes of the conference was a global adaptation framework, designed to help countries adapt to a changing climate, which African countries repeatedly described as “the most important outcome for Africa at COP 28.” But in the end, it came without teeth. Madeleine Diouf Sarr, chair of the Least Developed Countries, or LDC, group, described the adoption of the framework as a “historic achievement” but “regrettably devoid of actionable commitments.”