Determinants of bilateral official development assistance

According to the World Bank 2017 statistics, the inequalities between rich and poor countries have increased despite an 80% increase in the official development assistance volume. This persisted, even under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) regime (2000–2015), a period during which developing countries’ needs were assumed to be at the centre of the international community’s actions. Thus, one may question the effectiveness of aid and the real motivations of donor countries. This article aims to examine the factors that determine the bilateral official development assistance (BODA) allocation by using more recent data, and with an emphasis on whether donor countries have put into place a wish from the MDGs to largely take into account the needs of recipient countries in their ODA allocation decisions. Among other results, we show that the needs of recipient countries are taken into account by only small donors (in terms of volume) in their aid decisions. The major ODA providers do not follow the trend. Thus, rowing in line with the MDGs, putting the needs of recipient countries at the centre of BODA allocation was mainly limited to small ODA donors. Donor interest was is put forward by most of the donor countries.