I. Luxembourg’s official development assistance in 2015

An overview of official development assistance in 2015

The government’s programme for the period 2013-2018 specifies that “the government remains committed to strong, voluntary action in the field of development cooperation, which shall be maintained at 1% of GNI.” This commitment was further strengthened by a decision of the government council of 3 October 2014, which established a minimum threshold for Luxembourg’s official development assistance (ODA) of 323 million euros. 

In 2015, Luxembourg ODA amounted to 324 941 071 euros. As a percentage of gross national income (GNI), ODA in 2014 was 0,95%. It should be noted here that the fall in the proportion of ODA/GNI below the 1% threshold was due to a major reassessment of GNI during the year (+ 13%) and not due to a drop in the absolute financial volume allocated as ODA.

At the international level, the official development assistance given by the members of the OECD’s Development Aid Committee amounted to US$ 131,6 billion. Taking into account adjustments for inflation and exchange rates, this amounts to an increase of 6,9% compared to 2014. However, it should be noted that part of this increase was due to the migration crisis and the costs incurred as a result in the donor countries. 

Despite the recession in some member countries of the DAC, global ODA continues the uninterrupted growth it has enjoyed since 2000. In absolute terms, the main donors are the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan. As a percentage of GNI allocated to ODA, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom once again exceeded the objective of 0,7% set by the United Nations, while the average percentage of the member states of the OECD was 0,30%.

The G7 countries provided 72% of ODA in 2015 and the contribution of the 28 countries in the European Union amounted to 74 billion – 0,47% of their GNI.

Global bilateral aid to the least developed countries increased by 4% compared to 2014, reversing the negative trend of previous years. For Luxembourg, it amounted to some 109,60 million euros, or 45,49% of bilateral aid.

Global bilateral aid to the African continent also increased by 1% compared to 2014. For Luxembourg, this represented a total of 115,41 million euros in 2014, i.e. 47,91% of bilateral aid.

Global humanitarian assistance has increased by 11% and donations by 9% compared to 2014. For Luxembourg, humanitarian assistance is 13.08% of ODA consisting solely of donations.