Health ODA hits 10-year-low: New ONE analysis of OECD data

The OECD officially released its 2023 official development assistance (ODA) data. While the OECD announced aid is at its highest volume ever, it’s important to take a deeper look at the data and trends around where donor countries are prioritizing aid investments. Using the most recent data, The ONE Campaign has analyzed the trends around what countries give in global aid, where aid goes, and on what it is spent.  

Key findings from 2023 data:

15 percent of aid never left donor countries, as it was spent on refugee costs. Further, more than one quarter of aid is spent dealing with protracted crises, including COVID, refugees in donor countries and aid to Ukraine. While total aid is up 34% since 2019, if you remove those 3 categories, all other aid has actually decreased by 2%.

Share of ODA going to health has dropped to its lowest point in 10 years. All indicators suggest this will fall even lower in years to come at a time when progress against preventable deaths is at risk of backsliding.  Analysis from ONE, updated with the latest data from the OECD, showed that surge financing from COVID-19 disguised a downward trend in health aid: when COVID-19 funding is excluded, health funding from many major donors has not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels among many G7 and EU Institution donors.  

Malaria cases have steadily increased since 2018, partly due to changing weather patterns driven by climate change. 14.5 million “zero-dose” children did not receive a single shot of routine vaccines in 2023 due to disruptions from COVID-19. And outbreaks of cholera and mpox are spreading across several low- and middle-income countries.

Most donors are falling short of ODA targets. Over the last decade, aid as a share of national income (ODA/GNI) has barely risen, going from 0.31% in 2010 to 0.37% in 2023. Only 5 countries are meeting the international target of 0.7 percent, including Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark. As recently as 2005 and again in 2015, European Union countries recommitted to this target. However, very few countries have achieved 0.7% since that time, and even fewer have maintained it.

The share of aid going to Africa increased by just over one percentage point, remaining far below the average over the last 20 years. Meanwhile, debt payments for African countries reached record levels.