New DAC list of ODA Recipients

The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been collecting data on aid flows since 1961. The new list of ODA recipients, effective for reporting on 2008, 2009 and 2010 flows, has just been released.

The lists of aid recipients the committee publishes have changed shape several times over the years, to reflect new political and economic situations, and the ‘DAC List of Aid Recipients’ was introduced in 1993.

To begin with there were two parts to the list: aid to traditional developing countries, which was counted as ODA and which has the long-standing UN target of 0.7% of a country’s income; and aid to more advanced developing countries, which was classified as ‘official aid’.

The list was reviewed every three years, and successive revisions reflected global changes, including the transitions of countries in central Europe becoming EU members and donors themselves. In 2005, the DAC decided to maintain only part one of the list; the ‘List of ODA Recipients’.

The DAC List of ODA Recipients as at 1 January 2009, which was approved in September 2008, is now available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/62/48/41655745.pdf
For more information on the DAC list and its history visit: http://www.oecd.org/document/45/0,3343,en_2649_34447_2093101_1_1_1_1,00.html

Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG