Official development assistance (ODA) is defined as government aid designed to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries. Loans and credits for military purposes are excluded.

Aid may be provided bilaterally, from donor to recipient, or channelled through a multilateral development agency such as the United Nations or the World Bank. Aid includes grants, "soft" loans and the provision of technical assistance.

The OECD maintains a list of developing countries and territories; only aid to these countries counts as ODA. The list is periodically updated and currently contains over 150 countries or territories (see DAC List of ODA Recipients: https://oe.cd/dac-list ).

A long-standing United Nations target is that developed countries should devote 0.7% of their gross national income to ODA.

Prior to 2018, the ODA flows basis methodology covered loans expressed on a “cash basis”, meaning their full face value was included, then repayments were subtracted as they came in. From 2018, the ODA grant-equivalent methodology is used whereby only the “grant portion” of the loan, i.e. the amount “given” by lending below market rates, counts as ODA.

This indicator is measured as a percentage of gross national income and million USD constant prices, using 2021 as the base year.

Official development assistance (ODA) by sector is defined as the distribution of bilateral ODA commitments by economic sector. It does not refer to the type of goods or services provided. These data are aggregates of individual projects notified under the Creditor Reporting System, supplemented by reporting on the sectoral distribution of technical co-operation, and on actual disbursements of food and emergency aid.

This indicator is measured in million USD constant prices, using 2021 as the base year.

Distribution of net official development assistance (ODA) is defined as geographical aid allocations. Net ODA may be distributed by income group (least developed countries, other low-income countries, lower middle-income countries, upper middle-income countries, unallocated and more advanced developing countries and territories) or by geography (sub-Saharan Africa, South and Central Asia, other Asia and Oceania, Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and unspecified).

The OECD Development Assistance Committee's "List of ODA Recipients" shows developing countries and territories eligible for ODA. The list is revised every three years. It is designed for statistical purposes, not as guidance for aid distribution or for other preferential treatment. In particular, geographical aid allocations are national policy decisions and responsibilities.

This indicator is measured in million USD constant prices, using 2021 as the base year.

Country Programmable Aid (CPA) is the portion of aid that donors programme at country or regional level. CPA for bilateral donors is defined through exclusions, by subtracting from total gross bilateral official development assistance (ODA), all activities that:

1. are inherently unpredictable by nature (humanitarian aid and debt relief); or

2. entail no cross-border flows (administrative costs, imputed student costs, promotion of development awareness, and costs related to research and refugees in donor countries); or

3. do not form part of co-operation agreements between governments (food aid, aid from local governments, core funding to NGOs, ODA equity investments, aid through secondary agencies, and aid which is not allocable by country or region).

CPA from multilateral agencies is derived by subtracting from total multilateral outflows the non-CPA elements that are applicable to multilateral agencies. CPA is measured in gross disbursement terms and does not net out loan repayments since these are not usually factored into country aid decisions. CPA tracks the proportion of ODA over which recipient countries have, or could have, significant say. As such, CPA is closer to capturing actual aid flows to countries than the concept of official development assistance, and has been proven a good proxy for aid recorded at the country level. CPA is derived from the standard OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and Creditor Reporting System (CRS).

This indicator is measured in USD constant prices, using 2020 as the base year.

Conventionally, food aid includes grants and concessional loans that conform to official development assistance (ODA). Food aid is categorised and reported in terms of its uses and modes of supply. In terms of the use of food aid, three categories are distinguished:

1. programme food aid is supplied as a resource transfer providing balance of payments (BoP) or budgetary support;

2. project food aid is usually provided to support specific poverty alleviation and disaster prevention activities, targeted on specific beneficiary groups or areas;

3. relief food aid is targeted on, and freely distributed to, victims of natural or man-made disasters.

In practice, there has been a blurring of the distinctions between different categories of use, especially in an emergency, crisis situation. The other main approach to distinguish food aid is by looking at its sources or modes of supply:

1. direct transfers, including all food aid originating from a donor country;

2. food aid purchases or exchanges in one developing country for use as food aid in another country; and,

3. local purchases, procured in a country and used as food aid in the same country.

This indicator is measured in million USD constant prices, using 2018 as the base year.