The end of official development assistance (ODA) has been confidently predicted for decades.

But a funny thing happened at the end of the 90s. A set of development targets identified by the OECD mutated into the Millennium Development Goals and political momentum returned to the aid effort.

Annual ODA rose by two-thirds in the decade leading up to 2010. But the knives are out again in finance departments around the world, and critics charge that ODA measurements are inflated in any case.

Will ODA always be with us?

Simon Scott heads the Statistics and Monitoring Division of the OECD’s Development Cooperation Directorate. He oversees the collection and analysis of data on flows of ODA and other resources, and advises the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee on ‘performance against its members’ ODA volume commitments’, trends in financing for development and questions relating to the scope and limits of the concept of ODA. Before joining the OECD in 1993, he worked for AusAID for 14 years. He is the author of Philanthropic Foundations and Development Co-operation and Measuring Aid: 50 years of DAC statistics, and co-author of Innovative Financing to Fund Development.

Presentation slides are available from the Devpolicy events page: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/event-extra/past