Development Partners Snapshot:
EUROPEAN UNION
COUNTRY CONTEXT
Development policy:
Development co-operation institutions:
Within the European Commission, the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA, previously DEVCO) is in charge of formulating overall EU international co-operation and development policy. The EIB operates with its own resources and through specific Commission mandates with EU development funds. The European External Action Service co-ordinates the EU’s foreign policy, participates in co-operation programming and manages the EU delegations.
KEY GOVERNMENT ENTITY ON DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION
European Commission
ODA TRENDS
The EU institutions provided USD 19.0 billion of ODA in 2021. This was a decrease of 8.1% in real terms in volume due to repayments on private sector loans as well as frontloading of payments in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The EU institutions and member states have committed to collectively achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio by 2030. The bulk of the EU’s ODA over the next years will stem from the new “Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe”, with an envelope of EUR 79.5 billion for 2021-27. Within the EU institutions’ ODA portfolio in 2020, 71.3% was provided in the form of grants and 28.7% in the form of non-grants.
The EU institutions rank third of all Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members in terms of ODA volume as a grant equivalent. The EU institutions provide almost exclusively bilateral aid, although a fifth of this is earmarked support through other multilateral institutions. In 2020, the EU institutions had one of the highest shares of bilateral ODA allocated to Africa (40.9%). A high share of its ODA supports aid for trade (44.1% in 2020) and the EU is one of the largest providers in this area.
EFFECTIVENESS PERFORMANCE
Global Partnership monitoring trend
Click here for a snapshot of the European Union's results from the two most recent Global Partnership monitoring rounds (2018 and 2016). The Global Partnership monitoring process and framework have been revised, and the new round will take place from 2023 to 2026. This profile will be updated periodically as new data is generated by the monitoring exercise.
Use of monitoring results
-
The European Union published a report (“Does the EU deliver?”) in July 2020 based on their performance after the 2018 monitoring round and a detailed analysis of what is behind the trends.
-
Following the publication of the report, the European Union conducted two webinars in September and November 2020, to discuss the findings and implications for the EU and beyond as well as how they can be used to elaborate improvement strategies.
DAC Performance and Trends - 2019 GPEDC Progress Report
LEARN MORE
The 2022 OECD-DAC mid-term review (not available online) praised the EU’s major reform to establish a range of new instruments with robust results frameworks and a focus on climate change, gender and poverty. The review also commended efforts to work closely with member states in organising a strong COVID response, including with “Team Europe”, and noted the important role the EU plays to support policy coherence for sustainable development. The EU could make further progress to address cumbersome procedures and pursue a more coherent financial architecture. The review noted the structural challenges in increasing resources to least developed countries (LDCs).
