Provisional UK Official Development Assistance as a proportion of Gross National Income, 2011

Background notes  

Definitions

1. The UK is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) which is a forum for consultation among 23 donor countries and the European Commission. The DAC sets the definitions and classifications for reporting on ODA internationally. These are laid out in the DAC Statistical Reporting Directives . As a DAC member the UK is committed to transparent reporting of development assistance in a way that permits international comparisons.

2. ODA is the internationally agreed classification of aid.  It is defined as flows to developing countries and multilateral organisations provided by official agencies or by their executive agencies, each transaction of which meets the following criteria:

• It is administered with the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as its main aim
• It is concessional in character and conveys a grant element of at least 25 per cent.
• ODA is reported on a calendar year basis.

3. Multilateral ODA is defined as aid delivered in the form of core contributions to organisations listed in Annex 2 of the DAC Statistical Reporting Directives. Bilateral aid covers all aid provided by donor countries when the recipient country, sector or project is known. 

Sources

4. The vast majority of these statistics were collected from the administrative systems of DFID; other UK government departments and agencies and the European Union. The statistics also include estimates of Gift Aid provided to organisations by HMRC. Further details are provided below and in the glossary section of Statistics on International Development .

5. GNI figures used here are taken from UK National Accounts data published by the Office for National Statistics on 28 March 2012 .

DFID

6. The majority of UK public expenditure on development is delivered through DFID’s budget. The 2002 International Development Act makes reducing poverty the core purpose of UK aid. As such, the vast majority of DFID aid expenditure is included in these statistics; only a small amount of expenditure on non-ODA eligible countries and multilateral institutions is excluded. More detail on DFID’s bilateral projects is available via the Project Information Database on DFID’s website .

7. DFID’s Overseas Pensions Department is also responsible for the payment of colonial pensions made to ex-members of the UK Overseas Civil Service who were employed directly by developing countries. A small element of this is permitted to be classed as ODA. From 2009 this element has been reported separately in these statistics from expenditure via DFID’s core budget; this change is consistent with DFID’s Resource Accounts.

ODA managed jointly by DFID and other Government Departments

8. The Conflict Pool is the principal mechanism by which the Government allocates joint resources in support of the objectives set out in the Building Stability Overseas Strategy.  It focuses on discretionary conflict prevention, stabilisation and peacekeeping activities.  Its resources for 2011/12 to 2014/15 were set by the 2010 Spending Review through a joint conflict settlement. This settlement is additional to departmental budgets, and is managed jointly by the Department for International Development (DFID), Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and Ministry of Defence (MoD).  All Conflict Pool funds disbursed through DFID are included in these statistics and appear as part of DFID expenditure. The remaining figures comprise the aggregate of FCO and MOD development spending via the Conflict Pool. The Conflict Pool provides a mix of development and non-development resources; no military or non-development spending funded from the Conflict Pool is included in these statistics.

9. Under the same joint conflict settlement, on behalf of the three departments, the FCO manages HMG’s Peacekeeping Budget.  This covers the UK’s assessed peacekeeping costs – a legal obligation as a member of these organisations – for UN Peacekeeping (UNDPKO), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Field Missions, European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) Military and Civilian Missions, NATO operations in the Balkans, and the International Criminal Courts and Tribunals.  In line with DAC rules 6% of the funding to UNDPKO and 74% to the OSCE are allowed to score as ODA. Funding to ESDP Civilian Missions is also reported as ODA.

10. The ODA figures include funding to the International Climate Fund from DFID, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for Energy, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The purpose of the International Climate Fund is to support international poverty reduction by helping developing countries to adapt to climate change, take up low carbon growth and tackle deforestation. The fund is governed by DECC, DFID, FCO, Defra and HM Treasury.

Other ODA delivered by UK Government Departments

11. The FCO contributes to the aid programme in a number of ways:

• The FCO funds a large number of projects in developing countries through its Strategic and Bilateral Programme Funds. FCO Strategic and Bilateral Programmes support a range of the UK government’s international goals. We only include projects in our ODA reporting which meet OECD criteria to be reported as ODA. The FCO supports the British Council through grant-in-aid funding. This funding goes to support a range of initiatives including building the capacity and quality of English language teaching; supporting education systems; and using cultural exchange to improve economic welfare.
• The FCO makes core contributions to the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Commonwealth Foundation and the Commonwealth Small States office.  A proportion of these contributions are eligible to be reported as ODA in line with Annex 2 of the DAC Statistical Reporting Directives.
• In line with the DAC Statistical Reporting Directives, the FCO reports as ODA the costs of the work it does to support the aid programme overseas. Prior to 2011, this was calculated as a flat rate percentage of FCO programme flows. The FCO has worked with the OECD and DFID to develop a more accurate methodology, drawing on the FCO’s activity recording system and including work the FCO does to support the whole UK aid programme. From 2011, FCO aid related diplomacy has been calculated using the new methodology. It has not been possible to apply the methodology retrospectively. Consequently this means that ODA figures for earlier years in this area are not directly comparable.

12. A 2011 calendar year figure for FCO ODA has been estimated from the actual 2010/11 financial year return and quarterly returns received to date in 2011/12. This figure has been agreed with FCO.

13. The Scottish Government runs a bilateral aid programme funded from its own budget, which aims to directly support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and economic growth in a number of developing countries. The Welsh Assembly ‘Wales for Africa’ programme also aims to help deliver the MDGs and provides small grants to organisation based in Wales. Both these programmes are included in these statistics.

14. The Department for Culture Media and Sport works closely with DFID to deliver a range of initiatives to help address wider social issues encompassed by the MDGs; including contributing towards addressing gender inequality and acting as an effective medium for conveying educational messages relating to health. Relevant funding is reported in these statistics.

15. The estimates of the costs incurred by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) of supporting refugees from developing countries during their first 12 months in the UK are included in these statistics. DFID and the UKBA are also contributing to ongoing methodological work in the OECD to clarify guidance on refugee costs to further improve the consistency of donor estimates.  UK ODA statistics also include funding from the UKBA to the International Organisation for Migration.

16. A number of other government departments also make direct contributions to the UN system. A proportion of each contribution is reported as ODA in line with DAC rules. The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) provides support to the Universal Postal Union, the International Telecommunications Union and the World Intellectual Property Office; the Department for Work and Pensions makes an annual contribution to the International Labour Organisation and; the Department for Health makes an annual assessed contribution to the World Health Organisation.

Other sources of UK ODA

17. CDC Group PLC is wholly government owned. Its investments must have a clear development objective. The net amount (i.e. equity purchase less equity sales) of CDC investments in ODA-eligible countries is reported as ODA.

18. Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD) is an agency of BIS and provides insurance for exporters against the main risks in selling overseas. It also negotiates debt relief arrangements of commercial debt. The relevant amount of any debt relief is included in these statistics in line with OECD DAC definitions.

19. The EC Attribution used in this release is a provisional estimate of the UK share based on projections made by HM Treasury during the 2010 Spending Review.

20. The Gift Aid scheme allows UK charities to reclaim tax from HM Revenue and Customs on donations made by UK taxpayers. The proportion of additional support provided to UK NGOs via this scheme to deliver developmental objectives is estimated by DFID. DFID and HMT are contributing to ongoing methodological work to improve these estimates and the figure included here is provisional.

2010 Revisions

21. None of the headline 2010 figures included in this publication have been revised since the publication of Statistics on International Development 2011 . Some minor revisions not affecting the total ODA figures have taken place following final verification of the figures by the OECD DAC to ensure full consistency with its reporting standards. .

Timing & Releases

22. Final 2011 ODA data will be available in the 2012 edition of Statistics on International Development (SID), which will be available from the DFID website or from the ONS publication Hub in September/October 2012.  The final publication date for SID will be pre-announced on the ONS Hub.

23. Provisional 2011 ODA statistics for all members of the OECD will be published by the OECD DAC in early April, 2012.

National Statistics

24. The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

25. Designation can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics:

• meet identified user needs;
• are well explained and readily accessible;
• are produced according to sound methods; and
• are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest.

26. Once statistics have been designated as National Statistics it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed.

27. For information on the work of the UK Statistics Authority visit: http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk

Contacts
For media enquiries please contact the DFID Press Office on 0207 023 0600
For enquiries (non-media) about the information contained in this Statistical Release, or for more detailed information, please contact:

Andy Murray
Performance and Resource Management Team
DFID
Eaglesham Road
East Kilbride
G75 8EA
Tel: 01355 84 3210
Email: enquiry@dfid.gov.uk

For further information on development issues and DFID policies, please contact:
Public Enquiry Point: 0845 300 4100
E-mail: enquiry@dfid.gov.uk 
Website: www.dfid.gov.uk

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