Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of recent reports by the OECD that the least developed countries received a smaller share of aid in 2014 than at any time in the last 10 years.

The least developed countries (LDCs) received a smaller share of total Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2014 than in eight of the previous ten years. It is important to note that the overall ODA figure includes contributions that cannot be attributed to a specific benefitting country (e.g. core contributions to multilateral organisations) even though LDCs will have benefitted.

The UK played a leading role in securing a Development Assistance Committee commitment to reverse the declining trend of ODA to the poorest countries and for this commitment to be referenced in the June 2015 G7 Leaders’ Summit communique.

The UK’s ODA is focused on countries in most need. The Department for International Development uses a range of criteria to inform how aid is allocated across countries, including current and projected future poverty levels, the country’s ability to self-finance its own development needs and the likely effectiveness of UK aid.