I. Luxembourg’s official development assistance in 2016

An overview of official development assistance in 2016

In 2016, Luxembourg official development assistance (ODA) amounted to
353 143 813 euros, 1,02% of gross national income (GNI).

At the international level, official development assistance reached a new high in 2016 of USD 142,6 billion, an increase of 8,9% compared to 2015 when taking into account exchange rates and inflation. Part of this growth was the consequence of assistance to refugees in the aid donor countries, but even if one excludes this, the increase is still 7,1% according to the official data of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC). 

Despite this increase, the data for 2016 show that bilateral aid to the least developed countries has fallen by 3,9% in real terms compared to 2015 and aid to Africa has fallen by 0,5%. In response to this alarming statistic, José Ángel Gurría, the Secretary-General of the OECD, stated: “While governments should be congratulated for supporting investment in development over this difficult period, it is once again unacceptable that aid to the poorest countries should be falling. Recent indications by some donor countries regarding the levels of future aid are an additional source of concern. The main donor nations have committed to refocusing their efforts on the least developed countries. These commitments must now be translated into actions. Together, we must pay great attention to the destination of financial resources and to what is included in external aid.” We must note here that Luxembourg’s development cooperation is still directing around 45% of its bilateral ODA towards the least developed countries and 44% towards the African continent.

Official development assistance from the 29 members of the DAC has been on average 0,32% of GNI as against 0,30% in 2015, with the volume of aid having increased in most donor countries. In real terms – after taking into account inflation and currency fluctuations – ODA has now doubled since 2000.

In 2016, the largest increases were in Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Germany joined Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, the United Kingdom and Sweden in complying with the objective set by the United Nations to maintain ODA at a level of 0,7% or more of GNI.

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