Official Development Assistance" (ODA) is support provided by certain states to promote economic development and the improvement of living conditions in developing countries (Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD). Adopted by the DAC in 1969 as the benchmark for external aid, ODA remains the main source of financing for development assistance.
ODA is born of a principle of leaving no one behind and of the moral obligation of "Northern countries" towards "Southern countries", an obligation that since the 1970s has involved the dedication of 1% of the GDP of aid donor countries, of which 0.7% is official aid. The primary goal of such action is to satisfy the essential needs of the least developed countries, in a logic of rapid growth and redistribution to reduce poverty.
The following graph shows the evolution of official development assistance to Benin between 2000 and 2018.
Source: Produced by AJEB based on World Bank data, 2020.
ODA to Benin doubled between 2010 and 2018 compared to the early 2000s, despite a non-linear trend between 2010 and 2018. This increase could be explained by the implementation of several programs, first of all the Millennium Development Goals, then the Sustainable Development Goals.
It should be noted that in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, there was an increase in ODA to revive economic activity in the least developed countries, including Benin (with a maximum of $690 million in 2010).
We will soon experience the same trend with the sanitary-economic crisis that has weakened all countries, according to the conclusions of the last national humanitarian conference in December 2020 chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron, who also announced that ODA will increase to support African economies that are experiencing their first real economic recession in about twenty years.
CJEA