Publications & Documents

Faced with multiple priorities, including the imperative of accelerating the global green transition, development co-operation providers are at risk of losing sight of a silent, yet devastating crisis that has been unfolding even before the COVID-19 pandemic: the alarming increase of poverty and inequalities in low and middle-income countries. And yet, not only are ending poverty and reducing inequalities at the core of their mandates, both are also essential to meeting their broader ambitions in terms of sustainable development worldwide. What opportunities – and risks – is the climate priority posing for the fight against poverty and inequality? Can just, green transitions reinvigorate development agendas? How can international development co-operation policy and finance help? Bringing together the latest evidence, data and insights from governments, academia, international organisations and civil society, the OECD Development Co-operation Report 2024 provides policy makers with concrete ways of delivering on their commitments to improve the lives of billions while fostering green, just transitions around the world.

This toolkit offers practical advice to development co-operation and humanitarian assistance providers adhering to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance. It helps them implement the Recommendation’s provisions to strengthen local ownership and leadership, and support civil society in partner countries as independent development and humanitarian actors – particularly through more equitable partnerships between and within civil society organisations (CSOs). It is a companion piece to the 2023 OECD toolkit of the same series, Funding civil society in partner countries: Toolkit for Implementing the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance.

In an era of overlapping crises, achieving sustainable development is more challenging than ever. As we approach the 2030 deadline, the world is off track to meet most of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Urgent, transformative action is needed to reverse the setbacks. The OECD and its members have a central role to play in this global effort, guided by a shared commitment to global stability and progress. The OECD Recommendation on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD) is a key tool in addressing these challenges. It provides policymakers with the necessary mechanisms to ensure that policies across sectors and levels of government are mutually reinforcing in the pursuit of sustainable development, both domestically and globally. This report takes stock of the progress made in implementing the Recommendation over the past five years. It shows that many of the Parties to the Recommendation have laid a strong foundation for improving policy coherence. However, significant gaps remain, particularly in the capacity to assess the impact of policies on sustainable development and to integrate sustainable development into key governance processes.

The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts peer reviews of individual members once every five to six years. Reviews seek to improve the quality and effectiveness of members’ development co-operation, highlighting good practices and recommending improvements. France has embarked on an ambitious reform of its development co-operation in institutional, strategic and financial terms. In addition to a substantial increase in the resources devoted to official development assistance and a strengthening of its crisis response instruments, France has championed the linkages between the green and social agendas and the mobilisation of the private sector for sustainable development. The review discusses the difficult balance between the objectives of visibility and development impact, particularly in fragile contexts. It makes recommendations on combining political impetus, steering by objectives and flexibility; deepening the cross-benefits between the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainable development; and, strengthening the contribution of local private sector to poverty reduction by optimising available resources and instruments.

This Policy Guidance aims to support the effective and practical delivery of official development assistance (ODA) for inclusive governance, focusing on the central elements of a development project or programme – analytics and diagnostics, programme design and implementation, monitoring, evaluation and learning. Issued by the Governance Network of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), this Guidance for governance practitioners recommends a series of policy and practical measures designed to reduce social, political and economic exclusion, and enable more inclusive development impacts. Building on a dedicated multi-year programme of work, expert insights and the contributions of a designated Advisory Group, it underscores the significance of inclusive governance as a central attribute of SDG16 and the basis for equitable and sustainable development.

This Toolkit synthesises learning and examples gathered from Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members and partners, including their work through international fora such as the OECD, as well as additional research. It aims to support DAC members and partners in deepening their work and accelerate progress on any number of topics contained within the DAC Recommendation’s six pillars. Progress in Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH) prevention and response can be very incremental and difficult to measure, in part because it relies on addressing the many underlying factors that support the perpetuation of SEAH, such as cultural and social norms, as well as power dynamics. This Toolkit aims to support progress by DAC members on both technical and political levels, as well as support their coordination efforts with their partners to work towards long-term, sustainable change.

This biennial joint OECD-WTO publication provides a comprehensive analysis of trends and developments in Aid for Trade, the development finance flows that aim to help developing countries integrate into the global economy and benefit from trade opportunities. Analysing the evolution of those flows in a post-pandemic world, this edition finds that they proved resilient and remained largely aligned with partner country priorities, providing important support to bridge infrastructure gaps, foster connectivity, expand the digital economy and support clean energy transitions. Based on original data and a comprehensive stakeholder survey, the report assesses the impacts of Aid for Trade on development outcomes, and shows it is increasingly called upon to address new challenges, including climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The OECD’s Development Co-operation Profiles compile and analyse verified statistics and trends on how development assistance is allocated geographically, to sectors, multilateral and civil society organisations, cross-cutting priorities such as gender equality and women’s economic empowerment and the environment and climate, and to mobilise private finance. The profiles cover official and philanthropic providers of aid, official development assistance (ODA) and development finance. These providers include members of the OECD and its Development Assistance Committee (DAC), other countries and philanthropic foundations. The profiles also give an overview of key strategic and policy priorities for development co-operation, the institutional set-up and evaluation systems.

The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts peer reviews of individual members once every five to six years. Reviews seek to improve the quality and effectiveness of members’ development co-operation, highlighting good practices and recommending improvements. Fourteen years after joining the DAC in 2010, Korea is at a pivotal juncture as it rapidly scales up official development assistance (ODA) and assumes more global responsibility. The 2020 revision of the Framework Act signals a more coherent, cross-government approach to implement a larger budget. There is potential to bring greater coherence between domestic and international policies supported by legislation on sustainable development. This peer review provides a set of recommendations for Korea to strengthen strategic partnerships and dialogue with partners, and use the cross-government capacity review and evaluations to prioritise larger ODA volumes to implementers. It recommends that Korea increase the number of qualified staff working in development across government, delegate more authority to partner country offices, and increase its risk appetite to expand private sector operations.