According to the OECD, official development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa is declining

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) unveiled, this Monday, January 22, 2024, the figures for official development assistance for the year 2022. This concerns the assistance provided by States to promote economic advancement in developing countries.

And this has reached a historic level: 211 billion dollars in 2022. This is 17% more compared to the previous year.

But this increase does not concern sub-Saharan Africa where public development assistance, on the contrary, is decreasing.

At the Paris headquarters of the OECD (illustrative image) © AFP

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Between 2010 and 2021, on average, 31% of official development assistance went to sub-Saharan Africa.

But in 2022, this share dropped to 23%.

One of the lowest levels in years.

We have fallen below the $30 billion mark for bilateral ODA.

“

Costs for refugees

”

In particular: the fall of donors who are members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD.

How to explain such a decline?

According to Yasmin Ahmad, head of statistics collection at the OECD, ODA has instead been devoted to helping refugees: “

Costs for refugees have increased by 147% compared to 2021, not only for refugees from Ukraine, but also for refugees from other countries

, she says.

 There are also, for example, Afghanistan, Syria, and other countries where refugees are arriving in the member countries of the framework

.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the drop in bilateral official development assistance is partly offset by the increase in donations from multilateral donors: +7% in 2022. Figures for 2023 will be published by the OECD in April 2024.

Read alsoAt the Davos Forum, launch of a billion-dollar fund to support Africa

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