Management of the official development assistance spending target
An information note on the UK's management of its aid spending target – the percentage of UK gross national income (GNI) the UK commits to providing each year for international development.
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We have published an information note on how the UK manages its official development assistance (ODA) spending target.
Summary
The period since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has been one of exceptional turbulence for UK development assistance. UK ODA spending was reduced from the statutory target of 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) to 0.5% in 2021, and is now being progressively reduced to 0.3% by 2027.
At the same time, government expenditure on support to refugees and asylum seekers in the UK has increased, sharply reducing ODA available for spending overseas. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and other aid-spending departments have been required to manage both a succession of large-scale reductions and a lengthy period of uncertainty in their ODA budgets.
This information note sets out the nature and origins of the ODA spending target, the processes by which ODA budgets are allocated across government departments, and how the ODA target is managed at the cross-government level.