Foreign aid expenditure in OECD countries (discontinued), 2009

However, if measured as a percentage of the combined Gross National Income (GNI) of the 23 member countries, there is a small increase; from 0.30 per cent in 2008 to 0.31 per cent in 2009.

Of the total ODA, debt relief constituted USD 2.2 billion in 2009, down from USD 11.4 billion in 2010.

Long way to go if UN’s goal is to be reached

The level of development aid is usually measured as a percentage of GNI and is often used to compare countries’ expenditure on foreign aid. In 1970, the UN resolved that development aid should account for 0.7 of GNI. Norway, Sweden and Denmark achieved this goal relatively quickly in the 1970s. In 2009, only the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and Luxembourg achieved the target, and for the DAC countries in total, the UN goal is still a distant one.

USA the largest contributor

The largest donors in 2009, by volume, were the USA, followed by France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The USA contributed with USD 28.8 billion, or 0.21 per cent of GNI, up from 0.19 per cent in 2008. France increased its percentage of GNI used on development assistance from 0.39 in 2008 to 0.47 in 2009, while Germany reduced its percentage from 0.38 to 0.35.

Norway contributed with 1.06 per cent of GNI

Norway’s development aid was 1.06 per cent of GNI in 2009, while the percentage in 2008 was 0.89. The expenditure used on development aid increased marginally when measured in US dollars, from 4.0 to 4.1 billion.

Data supplied by DAC members on their 2008 aid flows are available here .

For more information can also be found at: OECD , NORAD , and our Statistical Yearbook .

Tables:

• Table 1 Official development assistance.