According to the OECD, Official Development Assistance (ODA) corresponds to “government aid that promotes and specifically targets the economic development and welfare of developing countries“. Adopted by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in 1969 as a reference for external aid, ODA remains the main source of development aid financing. In 2019, global ODA totaled $152,8bn, from which $12,18bn came from France.
Quantity of aid
Since 1970, the international community aims to allocate 0,7% of its GNI to ODA. This target was never reached in France, as well as in the majority of donor countries, except in Sweden, Norway, and Luxemburg. During its presidential campaign, French President Emmanuel Macron committed to allocate 0,55% of French GNI to ODA by 2022 as a first step to reach the 0,7% objective by 2025. In 2019, France allocated 0,44 % of its GNI to ODA, while EU ODA reached 0,46% of its GNI.
Global Health is a priority sector of French development aid, France being a historic leader in this field at the international level. Despite a strong prioritisation of health issues since the beginning of the years 2000, the share of ODA allocated to health within French ODA has decreased since 2003. In 2018, France allocated less than 10% of its ODA to health while health represented fewer than 4% of the French Development Agency’s activities, a key stakeholder of French aid. This is a particularly alarming assessment, when looking at health needs in developing countries.
Quality of aid
When analysing how French aid is being channelled, we observe increasing trends of privatisation and financiarisation of aid, as well as increasing prioritisation of security and migration issues. Those trends are in complete contradiction with the principles of aid effectiveness, notably on alignment to the beneficiaries’ needs. This raises question when it comes to equitable and universal access to health, especially in the poorest countries and for most vulnerable populations.
Our asks:
- By 2025, France should allocate 0,7% of its GNI to ODA, as stipulated by the United Nations.
- Innovative financing for development, which feed the French Solidarity and Development Fund should grow and ODA levels be safeguarded in order to mitigate the impact of decreasing GNP on ODA budgets.
- France should allocate 15% of its ODA to global health by 2022 under the shape of grants rather than loans.
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Donor countries, including the European Union should focus its ODA on equitable access to essential services (water, education, health, nutrition) rather than support to the private sector, migration management and security which tend to increase inequalities.
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ODA should not be used to mobilise private sector investments or favour public-private finance. This model does not reach the informal sector, youth, women, and has not proven to be efficient to reduce poverty.
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