Definition: this indicator measures the part of official development assistance to the least developed countries (LDCs). These are low-income countries that face severe structural impediments to sustainable development. They are highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks (measured by fluctuations in the agricultural production and victims of natural disasters) and their population is in worse health (measured by child and maternal mortality and malnutrition) and they have lower schooling (measured by educational participation and literacy rate). The Least Developed Countries list of August 2023 includes 46 countries. This list is revised every three years by the Committee for Development Policy of the United Nations (UN, 2023).

Goal: allocate at least 50 per cent of official development assistance to the least developed countries.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 17.2: "Developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of ODA/GNI to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries; ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries".

This target 17.2 corresponds to nr. 51 of the Addis Abeba Action Agenda (AAAA) of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development that took place in July 2015 and on which the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 69/313 (UN, 2015). The EU has undertaken to reach 0.20 per cent of GDP for ODA to LDCs by 2030 (EU, 2015, nr. 33). As good practice, the AAAA encourages to allocate at least 50 per cent of official development assistance to LDCs (UN, 2015, nr. 52). The Belgian federal government has undertaken to reach that goal by 2019 (De Croo, 2016, p. 7). This value of 50% is used as a target.

International comparison: in 2021 the DAC countries (the members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee) spent 26.5% of their official development assistance on the least developed countries. That is less than Belgium during that year and slightly lower than their 27.7% average over the 1990-2021 period. The Belgian average over that entire period was 6.7 percentage points higher than that of the DAC countries. Since 1990 Belgium has performed every year better than the DAC countries, except in 2012. Over the last few years this difference has narrowed.

As well as Belgium, in 2021, 18 other EU countries and also the EU institutions are members of the DAC. Eurostat publishes data on official development assistance to least developed countries for all 27 EU countries. That Eurostat data are expressed as a percentage of gross national income. When EU countries are divided into three groups, Belgium at 0.14% is part of the best performers in 2021, and outperforms the 0.11% EU average. In that year, Luxembourg ranked first with 0.45% and Cyprus last with 0.01%.

UN indicator: the selected indicator corresponds to 17.2.1 Net official development assistance, total and to least developed countries, as a proportion of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee donors’ gross national income (GNI).

Sources

• General

  • SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.

  • Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.

  • UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 31/10/2023).

  • UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 31/10/2023).

• Specific

  • De Croo A. (2016), Note de politique générale Développement international, Chambre des représentants, doc. 54 2111/002, 28/10/2016.

  • EU (2015), Council conclusions on a New Global Partnership for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development after 2015, Council Conclusions, 26/05/2015, European Union, document 9241/15.

  • UN (2015), Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (Addis Ababa Action Agenda), United Nations, Resolution A/RES/69/313, 27/07/2015.

  • UN (2023), Least Developed Countries (LDCs), United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Development Policy & Analysis Division, https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/least-developed-country-category.html (consulted on 31/10/2023).

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