International aid plummets by record 23% as global crisis bite

International aid from members and associates of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) fell sharply in 2025, dropping by 23.1% in real terms compared with the previous year — the largest annual decline in the history of official development assistance (ODA), according to preliminary OECD figures.

The contraction brings aid levels back to those last seen in 2015, the year the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. DAC member and associate countries provided a combined USD 174.3 billion in aid, representing 0.26% of their gross national income (GNI), down from USD 214.6 billion or 0.34% of GNI in 2024.

Germany overtook the United States to become the largest provider of ODA for the first time, contributing USD 29.1 billion. It was closely followed by the United States (USD 29.0 billion), the United Kingdom (USD 17.2 billion), Japan (USD 16.2 billion), and France (USD 14.5 billion). Notably, all five of these countries reduced their aid in 2025, accounting for 95.7% of the total decline. U.S. aid alone fell by 56.9%.

Only eight out of 34 DAC members managed to maintain or increase their ODA, while four countries surpassed the UN target of 0.7% of GNI: Denmark (0.72%), Luxembourg (0.99%), Norway (1.03%) and Sweden (0.85%).

OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann warned, “Fiscal pressures on developing countries are growing, and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East represents a significant risk for global growth and food security. In this challenging environment, the significant decline in official development assistance highlights the need to maximise the impact of available resources and to use them more effectively to unlock new sources of investment.”

Bilateral aid to Ukraine fell by 38.2% to USD 10.3 billion. However, when including EU institutional contributions, total assistance increased by 18.7% to USD 44.9 billion — the largest volume of aid ever delivered to a single country, surpassing total bilateral aid to all Least Developed Countries or to all nations in sub-Saharan Africa.

The decline in aid extended beyond volatile elements, with bilateral assistance for core development programmes dropping 26.3%, while humanitarian aid and in-donor refugee support fell by 35.8% and 22.1% respectively. The final ODA figures for 2025 will be published in December 2026.