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 and their population is in worse health and they have lower schooling. The Least Developed Countries list of December 2023 includes 45 countries. This list is revised every three years by the Committee for Development Policy of the United Nations (UN, 2024). The indicator is expressed as a percentage of the gross national income (GNI). The indicator includes both bilateral aid and imputed multilateral aid and, since 2020, also regional aid benefiting LDCs. The data come from the OECD and from Eurostat.

Goal: spend 0.2 per cent of the gross national income on 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".

The European Union included that target of 0.2 per cent by 2030 in the declaration The new European consensus on development ‘Our world, our dignity, our future’ of 7 June 2017 (Official Journal of the European Union C210/1-24 of 30/06/2017; number 103). It is also listed in the Regulation (EU) 2021/947 of 9 June 2021 establishing the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (Official Journal of the European Union L209/1-78 of 14/06/2021 and corrigendum L430/42 of 02/12/2021; consideration 22).

International comparison: since 2000 Belgium has performed every year better than the EU27 average. When EU countries are divided into three groups, Belgium at 0.13% is part of the best performers in 2022, and outperforms the 0.1% EU average. In that year, Luxembourg ranked first with 0.46% and Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta and Romania 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 31/10/2024).

  • UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 31/10/2024).

• Specific

  • Official Journal of the European Union, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/oj/direct-access.html?locale=en (consulted on 31/10/2024).

  • UN (2024), Least Developed Countries (LDCs), United Nations, https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/least-developed-country-category.html (consulted on 31/10/2024).

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