Aid for the Poor: The Need For a New Marker on Official Development Assistance

How much Official Development Assistance (ODA) ends in hands of the poor? This paper analyses the critical situation facing ODA since Donald Trump came to power and his drastic budget cuts to the aid’s Agency USAID, which have been followed by numerous other donors. It proposes several options for identifying aid truly targeted to the poor. One is a poverty marker registered by the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, similar to those already in place for other goals such as the Rio Declaration or gender. Another is to better capture aid channelled through Non Governmental Organizations or for sectors directly related to poverty, such as education, health, water and sanitation, and humanitarian aid. This can increase transparency, ownership, and accountability so that ODA does not become a residual variable that is dispensed in order to increase defence spending. Our estimate indicates that, at present, ODA targeted to the poor would represent roughly 20–35% of the total.