What is aid?
In Norway, the term "aid" is used mainly to refer to public resources intended to support social and economic development in developing countries. A broad specter of activities may be interpreted as belonging to this purpose, and donors often entertain different opinions of what leads to development, when and how. Therefore, the OECD, through the development committee "Development Assistance Committee" (DAC) – a forum for donor countries of which Norway is a member – has set an international standard for what may be considered aid or "Official Development Assistance" (ODA), which is the the international term for aid.
According to the DAC definition, aid consists of monetary contributions, materials, activities, or services (expertise/competence) where the main goal is to contribute to economic and social development (increasing welfare) in one or more developing countries (low- or medium-income countries). The list of countries quailified to receive ODA is updated every three years, and countries that have remained high-income countries for three consecutive years are removed from the list.
As long as the aid is in line with its purpose (economic and social development), and within its geographical framework (developing countries), it is up to the donor country to decide themes, channels, measures, and budget volumes. Subsequently, since the establishment of the OECD's Development Committee in 1960, many and very differing areas of effort, sectors, projects and initiatives have become part of international aid. Different focus areas and varying thematic focus may result from new crises or development trends in the low-income countries, or new ideas and knowledge that have come to light in donor countries. Today, for example, ODA includes everything from water and sanitation efforts, efforts to reduce climate emissions, guarantee schemes for private investment in poor countries, democracy and institutional support, as well as protection and care for refugees in the donor countries. Certain areas such as military efforts cannot be reported as aid, even if their purpose is to preserve peace and stability in developing countries.
In 1970, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that set the goal for all rich countries to reach an aid volume corresponding to 0.7 per cent of the country's gross national income (GNI) by 1975. Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark already reached this target in 1980, but the average within the DAC has never exceeded 0.4 per cent of GNI. For a long time and through consecutive governments, Norway has had a goal of donating one percent of GNI to aid.
An important, fundamental distinction within ODA is between the long-term development aid and humanitarian emergency aid. The long-term development aid is intended to ensure long-term economic growth and poverty reduction, according to the donor countries own political and/or professionally justified priorities tha ideally should harmonize with the political priorities of the partner (recipient) country. The humanitarian aid, on the other hand, is short-term and needs-based and should ideally be implemented impartially and independently of national authorities' priorities.
Read more in the report Numbers that count - Statistics on Norwegian development aid in 2023 (Norwegian only).
See also: In-donor refugee costs in official development assistance (ODA)