IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/dcdaaa/12-en.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Evolution of Official Development Assistance: Achievements, Criticisms and a Way Forward

Author

Listed:
  • William Hynes

    (OECD)

  • Simon Scott

    (OECD)

Abstract

The definition of Official Development Assistance (ODA) has for 40 years been the global standard for measuring donor efforts in supporting development co-operation objectives. It has provided the yardstick for documenting the volume and the terms of the concessional resources provided, assessing donor performance against their aid pledges and enabling partner countries, civil society and others to hold donors to account. Yet for all its value, the ODA definition has always reflected a compromise between political expediency and statistical reality. It is based on interpretation and consensus and therefore allows for flexibility. It has evolved over the decades, while preserving the original concepts of a definition based on principal developmental motivation, official character and a degree of concessionality. While agreement on the ODA concept was a major achievement, discussion of the appropriateness of this measure has never ended. The paper documents the evolution of the ODA concept and proposes a possible new approach to measuring aid effort.

Suggested Citation

  • William Hynes & Simon Scott, 2013. "The Evolution of Official Development Assistance: Achievements, Criticisms and a Way Forward," OECD Development Co-operation Working Papers 12, OECD Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:oec:dcdaaa:12-en
    DOI: 10.1787/5k3v1dv3f024-en
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1787/5k3v1dv3f024-en
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1787/5k3v1dv3f024-en?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R. Renard & D. Cassimon, 2003. "The Quality of Aid Statistics What We Should Be Measuring, and Why We Don’t," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(4), pages 652-674.
    2. Jean-Michel Severino & Olivier Ray, 2009. "Death and Rebirth of a Global Public Policy," Working Papers 167, Center for Global Development.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Phuong-Tra Vu & Phung Bao Ngoc Van, 2021. "National culture and the distribution of foreign aid," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 359-368.
    2. Huong, Tran Thi Lan & Ha, Le Thanh, 2023. "A comprehensive analysis of the correlation between foreign aid and energy security in emerging countries: Does institutional quality matter?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 952-968.
    3. Justin Yifu LIN & Yan WANG, 2015. "China’s Contribution to Development Cooperation: Ideas, Opportunities and Finances," Working Papers P119, FERDI.
    4. Johnny Flentø & Leonardo Santos Simao, 2021. "Buying Security with Charity: Why donors change conditionality," DERG working paper series 21-12, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Development Economics Research Group (DERG).
    5. Hillary Chijindu Ezeaku & Ifeoma C. Nwakoby & Obiamaka P. Egbo & Josaphat U. J. Onwumere, 2019. "On the Dynamic Effect of Bilateral Concessional Debts on Living Standards in Sub-Saharan Africa," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(3), pages 21582440198, September.
    6. Hillary Chijindu Ezeaku & David Okelue Ugwunta & Godwin Imo Ibe & Ebele Igwemeka & Eze Festus Eze & Obiamaka P. Egbo, 2023. "Effect of bilateral and multilateral concessional debts on public investment in Africa: A contingency analysis," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 35(2), pages 198-210, June.
    7. Joren Verschaeve & Jan Orbie, 2018. "Ignoring the elephant in the room? Assessing the impact of the European Union on the Development Assistance Committee's role in international development," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S1), pages 44-58, March.
    8. Cassimon, Danny & Renard, Robrecht & Verbeke, Karel, 2014. "How to account for concessional loans in aid statistics?," IOB Analyses & Policy Briefs 9, Universiteit Antwerpen, Institute of Development Policy (IOB).
    9. Momita, Yasuaki & Matsumoto, Tomoya & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2019. "Has ODA contributed to growth? An assessment of the impact of Japanese ODA," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 161-175.
    10. Domínguez, Rafael & Olivié, Iliana, 2014. "Retos para la cooperación al desarrollo en el post-2015 /Challenges for Development Cooperation in the Post-2015," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 32, pages 995-1020, Septiembr.
    11. Manuel Ennes Ferreira & Bárbara Muniz, 2022. "Is the 0.7% goal of ODA/GNI still adequate for the recipients? An overview of the recipients’ situation with a focus on Africa," Working Papers Department of Economics 2022/04, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    12. Joseph Onjala, 2018. "China's development loans and the threat of debt crisis in Kenya," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S2), pages 710-728, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alina Georgeta AILINCA, 2021. "Conceiving A Composite Evaluation For Official Development Assistance In Supporting Sustainable Development Goals And Economic Growth," Contemporary Economy Journal, Constantin Brancoveanu University, vol. 6(3), pages 66-74.
    2. HEPP, Ralf, 2010. "CONSEQUENCES OF DEBT RELIEF INITIATIVES IN THE 1990s," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 10(1).
    3. Alessandra Cepparulo & Luisa Giuriato, 2012. "Global Challenges and Country-Specific Responses through Aid Financing of Global Public Goods," Working Papers in Public Economics 156, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    4. James Copestake, 2010. "The global financial crisis of 2008-2009: an opportunity for development studies?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(6), pages 699-713.
    5. Michael Hübler, 2017. "The Future of Foreign Aid in a Globalizing World with Climate Change," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8(1), pages 41-51, February.
    6. Silvia Marchesi & Alessandro Missale, 2004. "What does motivate lending and aid to the HIPCs?," Development Working Papers 189, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    7. Annalisa Prizzon & Romilly Greenhill & Shakira Mustapha, 2017. "An ‘age of choice’ for external development finance? Evidence from country case studies," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35, pages 29-45, July.
    8. Heiner Janus & Stephan Klingebiel & Sebastian Paulo, 2015. "Beyond Aid: A Conceptual Perspective on the Transformation of Development Cooperation," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 155-169, March.
    9. Sumner, Andy, 2012. "Where Do The Poor Live?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 865-877.
    10. berlage, Lodewijk & cassimon, Danny & dreze, Jacques & Reding, Paul, 2003. "Prospective Aid and Indebtedness Relief: A Proposal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 1635-1654, October.
    11. Nancy Birdsall & Stijn Claessens & Ishac Diwan, 2002. "Will HIPC Matter? The Debt Game and Donor Behaviour in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-50, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Shelburne Robert C. & Clark Don P. & Longfellow Blodgett Linda & Basu Parikshit K. & Hunter Richard J. & Ryan Leo V. & Shah Abhay & Zeis Charles & Regassa Hanilu & Ahmadian Ahmad & Chang Charles C. & , 2002. "Global Economy Quarterly, Issue 2-4," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2-4), pages 1-153, December.
    13. Silvia Marchesi & Alessandro Missale, 2007. "How defensive were lending and aid to HIPC?," Working Papers 115, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised 2007.
    14. Museru, Malimu & Toerien, Francois & Gossel, Sean, 2014. "The Impact of Aid and Public Investment Volatility on Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 138-147.
    15. Robin Davies & Jonathan Pickering, 2017. "How should development co-operation evolve? Views from developing countries," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35, pages 10-28, July.
    16. Unceta Satrustegui, Koldo & Gutiérrez-Goiria, Jorge, 2012. "Identidad y legitimidad de la cooperación al desarrollo: El debate sobre la relación de la AOD con la pobreza y la desigualdad internacional/Identity and Legitimacy of Development Cooperation: The Deb," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 30, pages 773-800, Diciembre.
    17. Ashoff, Guido, 2015. "Die Global Governance-Qualität der internationalen Aid Effectiveness Agenda: eine theoretische Analyse und Bewertung der Systemreform der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit," IDOS Studies, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), volume 87, number 87.
    18. Niels Keijzer, 2016. "Open Data on a Closed Shop? Assessing the potential of transparency initiatives with a focus on efforts to strengthen capacity development support," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 34(1), pages 83-100, January.
    19. Gonsior, Victoria & Klingebiel, Stephan, 2019. "The development policy system under pressure: acknowledging limitations, sourcing advantages and moving towards a broader perspective," IDOS Discussion Papers 6/2019, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    20. Tamas Novak, 2015. "Innovative finance for development - Instruments of social integration and responsibility in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs)," IWE Working Papers 212, Institute for World Economics - Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O2 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy
    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oec:dcdaaa:12-en. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/oecddfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.