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Statistical Release

26 October 2006

2006 Edition of Statistics on International Development

Front cover of SID 2006The Department for International Development (DFID) has released details of financial year 2005/06 development assistance expenditure in the 2006 edition of Statistics on International Development (SID).

SID provides details of the volume, type, destination and purpose of all UK development assistance. Key statistics for the financial year 2005/06 are:
 

  • The UK’s Gross Public Expenditure on Development (GPEX) amounted to £6,612m in 2005/06. The DFID aid programme accounted for £4,413m (67 per cent) of this expenditure. Excluding debt relief, DFID accounted for £4,348m (88 per cent) of GPEX.
  • GPEX increased by £1,435m (27 per cent) in 2005/06 over the previous year. Excluding debt relief, GPEX increased by £469m (10 per cent) between 2004/05 and 2005/06.
  • In 2005/06 £2,504m (57 per cent) of DFID expenditure was bilateral assistance and £1,674m (38 per cent) was channelled through multilateral organisations. The remaining £234m (5 per cent) was spent on administration costs.
  • DFIDs bilateral expenditure rose from £2,112m in 2004/05 to £2,504m in 2005/06 (19 per cent). India, Bangladesh and Sudan received the largest amounts of DFID bilateral aid.
  •  DFIDs bilateral assistance excluding humanitarian assistance was £2,094m in 2005/06, up from £1,775m in 2004/05 (18 per cent). India, Bangladesh and Tanzania were the largest recipients of DFID bilateral aid excluding humanitarian assistance.
  • DFID’s humanitarian assistance in 2005/06 totalled £550m representing an increase of £112m (26 per cent). £411m was spent bilaterally and £140m multilaterally. The largest recipients of bilateral humanitarian assistance were Sudan (£98m), Democratic Republic of Congo (£52m) and Pakistan (£39m).
  • DFID’s bilateral assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa rose from £826m in 2004/05 to £1,097m in 2005/06 (33 per cent). Assistance to Asia also increased over this period from £807m to £943m (17 per cent).
  • In 2005/06 £261m of bilateral assistance was channelled through UK Civil Society Organisations. Major recipients included the British Red Cross, VSO and Oxfam.
  • The European Community’s development programme received the largest amount of DFID multilateral assistance (£917m), followed by the United Nations (£299m) and the World Bank (£272m).
  • DFID debt relief through all channels amounted to £65m in 2005/06. Non-DFID debt relief (through CDC and ECGD) was £1,588m, £1,135m of which relates to Nigerian debt relief.

Some figures are shown on a calendar year basis to allow international comparisons. These show that in 2005:

  • The UK reported £5,916m as official development assistance (ODA), making the UK the third largest OECD-DAC donor on this internationally agreed classification of aid. The UK’s ODA/GNI ratio for 2005 was 0.47 per cent, giving a ranking of 8th out of the 22 donors. Excluding debt relief ODA was £3,978m which represented 0.32 per cent of GNI.

The new International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Act makes it a legal requirement for the International Development Secretary to report annually to Parliament on the Government’s development policies and programmes. It complements the International Development Act 2002, by establishing a formal, legal basis for how the Government reports and accounts for the aid it provides. Included in the Department’s annual statistical publication is a detailed breakdown of UK aid as a result of the new measures introduced in the International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Act, which received Royal Assent in July 2006. The requirements of the Act include the reporting on:

  • UK bilateral aid broken down by debt relief; region; country; sector; country as a percentage of UK bilateral aid; percentage and amount to low income countries.
  • UK multilateral aid broken down by debt relief; EC, World Bank; UN agencies; others.
  • UK ODA broken down by percentage of GNI; country; percentage and amount to low income countries; country as a percentage of UK ODA.
  • UK Multilateral ODA broken down by percentage of GNI.
  • UK imputed share of the aggregate amount of multilateral ODA provided by the bodies to which the UK contributed such assistance broken down by country; percentage and amount to low income countries.

Background notes

Gross Public Expenditure on Development includes DFID programme expenditure, aid from other UK Government Departments, investments and debt relief from CDC Capital Partners and debt relief from ECGD.

The United Nations has a target stating that donors should give 0.7% of their gross national income (GNI) as ODA. The UK has agreed to reach this target by 2013.

Statistics on International Development is available electronically on this web site. Hard copies will be available from DFID’s Statistical Reporting and Support Group at the address below from early November.

Contacts

Press enquiries to DFID Press Office on 0207 023 0600.

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 October 2007