Statistical Release

2 April 2007

Provisional UK Official Development Assistance as a proportion of Gross National Income, 2006 

The Department for International Development (DFID) has announced provisional figures for UK net Official Development Assistance (ODA) and ODA as a proportion of Gross National Income (ODA/GNI) in 2006.

ODA figures for all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) members are published by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD and will be released on 3 April 2007.

UK Calendar Year ODA

UK ODA in 2006 is estimated at £6,851 million. This is an increase of £ 928 million on the 2005 figure of £5,923 million and represents a 15.7 per cent increase in cash terms or 12.6 per cent in real terms.

UK ODA now accounts for 0.52 per cent of the £1,312 billion Gross National Income (GNI) in 2006, up from 0.47 per cent in 2005.

GNI has increased by 4.7 per cent between 2005 and 2006.

UK ODA excluding debt relief in 2006 is estimated at £4.96 billion. This is an increase of just under £1 billion on the previous year and represents an increase of 24.6 per cent in cash terms or 21.4 per cent in real terms.

UK ODA excluding debt relief as a proportion of GNI is 0.38 percent in 2006 compared to 0.32 per cent in 2005.

Within the UK ODA total:

• Bilateral expenditure increased from £4.49 billion to £4.70 billion representing an increase of 4.5 per cent.
• Bilateral ODA to South of Sahara Africa (SSA) rose from £2.07 billion to £2.91 billion, an increase on 40.6 per cent.
• Excluding debt relief, bilateral ODA to South of Sahara Africa increased from £881 million to £1.14 billion.
• ODA contributions to multilateral organisations such as the United Nations, European Commission, the World Bank and other regional banks increased from £1.43 billion in 2005 to £2.16 billion in 2006, an increase of 50.5 per cent.
• In 2006, debt relief was £1.89 billion, or 27.6 percent of ODA compared to £1.94 billion or 32.8 per cent in 2005. Debt relief to Nigeria of £1.65 billion accounted for most of the debt relief. £482 million of the Nigeria debt relief was the debt buy-back discount.

The table below give a summary of the changes in ODA between 2005 and 2006

£ millions

Background Notes

Official Development Assistance (ODA) is measured in calendar years in accordance with international guidelines agreed by Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation of the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The figures cover expenditure in developing countries from all UK official sources, including investment by CDC Group PLC (a government-owned company which invests in emerging markets), debt relief from Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) and promissory notes deposited in respect of United Nation, the World Bank and regional development banks and funds.

At the time of the Nigeria agreement in October 2005, there was no DAC directive on the ODA treatment of a discount offered when a debtor buys back its own debt. The DAC agreed that members who believe the main objective of the Nigeria debt relief package was developmental can report the discount as ODA; those that believe that the main objective was commercial can report the discount as an other official flow (OOF). The UK has reported this discounted debt buyback as ODA. The UK has reported this discounted debt buyback as ODA as have Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and US. Austria and Denmark will report the Nigeria debt buyback as ODA in 2007. Further guidance on the ODA treatment of future debt buybacks is being developed by the DAC.

2005 ODA has now been finalised and figures in this release will be different from those published in Statistics on International Development 2006, which contained provisional ODA figures for 2005.

Contacts

Press enquiries to DFID Press Office on 0207 023 0600.

Statistics queries to Elaine Drennan on 01355 843329.

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 

Next publication date

Further information and final ODA and ODA/GNI figures will published in the annual publication Statistics on International Development, the next issue of which will be published in October 2006. Provisional figures for 2007 will be published in April 2008.

Back to top