Overview
- The OECD, which released preliminary figures Thursday, reported a 23.1% drop in official development assistance to $174.3 billion in 2025, equal to just 0.26% of donor national income versus the UN’s 0.7% goal.
- The United States accounted for about three-quarters of the overall fall after cutting its aid by 56.9%, the steepest annual reduction by any provider on record.
- Germany became the largest donor for the first time as 26 of 34 OECD donors reduced aid and the five biggest providers together were responsible for 95.7% of the decline.
- Bilateral aid fell 26.4% and multilateral aid 12.7%, while Ukraine stood out with a record $44.9 billion in net ODA largely routed through EU institutions.
- The OECD warns of a further 5.8% real-terms drop in 2026, and aid groups say the cuts are closing clinics and weakening disease control, with projections of millions of preventable deaths by 2030 if the trend continues.