Which sectors received the most aid in 2024?
We crunched the latest data to see how the Development Assistance Committee member countries disbursed $92.4 billion on sector-specific activities in 2024.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shared its final statistics on official development assistance in mid-December, providing a granular breakdown of how the largest bilateral donors spent on development and humanitarian causes across the globe. Overall, Development Assistance Committee member countries cumulatively disbursed $214.5 billion on foreign assistance in 2024. This is a slight increase from an early estimate of $212.1 billion ODA, mainly driven by a $2.2 billion adjustment from the U.S.’s contributions, which went up to $65.5 billion from $63.3 billion. Although the latest report precedes the historic aid cuts by the United States and the series of aid deprioritizations among other major donors, it already shows a 6% real-term cut from previous levels. Using OECD’s Creditor Reporting System data, we mapped out the sectoral flow of ODA in 2024, identifying the top-recipient priority areas, where they were mostly spent, as well as the bilateral donors that disbursed the most to support these sectors. In the coming weeks, we will also publish a report that will focus on the geographical distribution of ODA. All figures in this piece are in 2024 U.S. dollar current prices. The top-level figures Of the total ODA in 2024, $51.3 billion went to international organizations, such as the World Bank Group and the U.N. system, as multilateral aid. Another $70.9 billion was spent on what OECD classifies as nonsector allocable aid — a portion of ODA that supports broad objectives and does not flow to a specific sector. This included $27.9 billion for in-donor refugee costs; $23 billion in humanitarian aid; $12.5 billion for administrative costs; $4.2 billion for unallocated or unspecified aid — a catch-all for activities that cannot be categorized by sector or recipient — $2.7 billion for commodity aid — which includes budgetary support and food aid — and $500.4 million for action relating to debt — which includes debt relief, debt rescheduling, and refinancing. The remaining 43% of the total ODA, worth $92.4 billion, falls under sector-allocable aid. These are activities that can be linked to a particular sector. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1768220338653' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='All sectors ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Se/SectoralbreakdownofOfficialDevelopmentAssistancein2024/Allsectors/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='SectoralbreakdownofOfficialDevelopmentAssistancein2024/Allsectors' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Se/SectoralbreakdownofOfficialDevelopmentAssistancein2024/Allsectors/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='filter' value='publish=yes' /><param name='device' value='desktop' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /></object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1768220338653'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style=font-style: georgia;”>Sectoral breakdown of official development assistance in 2024, based on OECD.</i> Sector-allocable aid: Broad categories Sector-allocable aid is divided into four main categories: economic infrastructure and services, multisector or cross-cutting, production sectors, and social infrastructure and services. Social infrastructure and services received more than half of the total sector-allocable aid in 2024, worth $54.2 billion. This category is further subdivided into six subcategories: education, government and civil society, health, population and reproductive health, water supply and sanitation, and other social infrastructure and services such as housing and job creation. Multisector or cross-cutting ranked next among the broad categories, with $16.3 billion, and is subdivided into two areas: general environment protection and other multisector. Economic infrastructure and services followed, with $14.3 billion. It has five subcategories: banking and financial services, business and other services, communications, energy, and transport and storage. The last among these categories is the production sectors, which got $7.6 billion, and is subdivided into four subcategories: agriculture, forestry, and fishing; industry, mining, and construction; tourism; and trade policies and regulations. In focus: Priority areas DAC disbursed aid in over 200 sectoral areas in 2024. Among them, just three areas made up nearly 30% of the total sector-allocable aid in 2024. Public sector policy and administrative management ranked first among these priorities, with $9.7 billion, or 10.5% of the total sector-allocable aid. Funding for this area supports a range of governmental functions — from the administration and operation of the government’s executive offices, government agencies involved in foreign aid, to national monitoring and evaluation services. Virtually all disbursements for public sector policy and administrative management came from the U.S., worth $8.7 billion; followed by South Korea, with $178.6 million; Germany, with $176.1 million; Australia, with $138.3 million; and Japan, with $78.8 million. Among recipients, Ukraine got nearly 82% of the total, worth $7.9 billion. Other top-recipient countries included Jordan, with $738.8 million, Bangladesh, with $79.1 million, and Peru, with $63 million. Multisector aid — which encompasses activities that have more than one target area — ranked next, with $9.3 billion. Germany accounted for more than half of the disbursement, worth $4.8 billion; followed by Japan, with $1.8 billion; Canada, with $685.1 million; Norway, with $423.9 million; and the U.S., with $410.4 million. Nearly 70% of the total ODA for multisector aid, worth $6.5 billion, went to multiple recipients from different regions. OECD labels this as “developing countries, unspecified.” Among countries, Ukraine is the top recipient, with $1.3 billion; then Uzbekistan, with $259.6 million; and Jordan, with $65.9 million. A significant portion of ODA was also spent on the control of HIV and AIDS, which received $8.1 billion. This mostly came from the U.S., which disbursed almost $8 billion. Other top-spending donors included the Netherlands, with $33.9 million; France, with $25.7 billion; and Canada, with $14.8 million. The majority of ODA for the control of HIV and AIDS, worth $4.1 billion, was spent on multiple recipients from different regions. Among countries, South Africa received the largest sum, worth $416.3 million; followed by Mozambique, with $386.4 million; and Nigeria, with $344.6 million. The other top-funded areas were higher education, with $5.1 billion, rail transport, with $4 billion, and environmental policy and administrative management, with $2.6 billion. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1768220442230' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='All priority areas ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Br/BreakdownofOfficialDevelopmentAssistancein2024bypurpose/Allpriorityareas/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='BreakdownofOfficialDevelopmentAssistancein2024bypurpose/Allpriorityareas' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Br/BreakdownofOfficialDevelopmentAssistancein2024bypurpose/Allpriorityareas/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='filter' value='publish=yes' /><param name='device' value='desktop' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /></object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1768220442230'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style=font-style: georgia;”>Breakdown of official development assistance in 2024 by purpose, based on OECD.</i> Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free five-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shared its final statistics on official development assistance in mid-December, providing a granular breakdown of how the largest bilateral donors spent on development and humanitarian causes across the globe.
Overall, Development Assistance Committee member countries cumulatively disbursed $214.5 billion on foreign assistance in 2024. This is a slight increase from an early estimate of $212.1 billion ODA, mainly driven by a $2.2 billion adjustment from the U.S.’s contributions, which went up to $65.5 billion from $63.3 billion.
Although the latest report precedes the historic aid cuts by the United States and the series of aid deprioritizations among other major donors, it already shows a 6% real-term cut from previous levels.
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Miguel Tamonan is a Senior Development Analyst at Devex, where he analyzes data from public and private donors to produce content and special reports for Pro and Pro Funding readers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a Major in International Relations from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
