MFA: In 2020, Finland’s ODA to GNI ratio rose to 0.47 per cent

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its preliminary data on development cooperation in 2020 today, on 13 April 2021.

In relation to 2019, Finland’s development cooperation expenditure rose in real terms by 8.1 per cent. With the GNI ratio at 0.42 per cent in 2019, Finland’s development cooperation expenditure was EUR 1 010 million.  In 2019, the ODA administered by the Foreign Ministry was EUR 568.5 million.

One of the reasons for the rise in the ODA to GNI ratio was that, based on the latest data, Finland’s GNI fell by approximately half a per cent in 2020.

The actual amount of ODA expenditure in 2020 grew by EUR 109 million compared to 2019. The biggest increases were seen in multilateral development cooperation and humanitarian assistance. Multilateral development cooperation grew by EUR 62 million compared to the previous year. Humanitarian assistance grew by EUR 35 million.

A major downward trend was visible in other than Finnfund’s development policy investments (EUR 20 million, which is EUR 76 million less than in 2019) and in expenditure on refugee-related expenditure (EUR 52 million, which is EUR 28 million less than in the year before).

A significant proportion of Finland’s development cooperation funding was provided through the EU (EUR 246 million) and other multilateral organisations, such as the UN (EUR 281 million) and the World Bank Group (EUR 96 million). In 2020, EUR 113 million was allocated for humanitarian assistance. In 2020, the main recipients of Finland’s bilateral development cooperation funding were Afghanistan (EUR 24 million), Somalia (EUR 23 million), Myanmar (EUR 22 million), Ethiopia (EUR 19 million) and Mozambique (EUR 16 million).

Globally, development cooperation flows in 2020 amounted to USD 161,2 billion (EUR 141,5 billion), which represented an increase by 3,5 per cent in real terms compared to the previous year. The largest donors were the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and France. Of the OECD/DAC members, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom exceeded the 0.7 per cent target set by the UN. DAC members’ average ODA to GNI ratio was 0,32 per cent. 

EU Member States’ ODA flows amounted to USD 72.7 billion (EUR 64 billion), which corresponds to 45 per cent of all documented ODA and 0.50 per cent of EU GNI. In real terms, the EU’s ODA expenditure rose by 7.8 per cent from 2019. Finland’s GNI ratio remained slightly below the average level of the DAC-EU countries.

In addition to Finland, development cooperation expenditure grew in 16 other OECD/DAC member countries. The most increases were seen in Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Hungary, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. Part of the increase in development cooperation expenditure was due to the response to the pandemic. At the same time, ODA expenditure fell in 13 DAC member countries. The biggest decreases of expenditure were seen in Australia, Greece, Portugal and the UK. 

Preliminary data of the actual disbursements will be updated in the final statistics, for example concerning their allocation to different regions. The share of GNI may change when the revised data published by Statistics Finland are available.

Inquiries:

Jasper Hakala, Programme Officer, Unit for Administrative and Legal Development Cooperation Matters, tel. +358 295 350 796

Satu Santala, Director General, Department for Development Policy, tel. +358 295 351 815

The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname@formin.fi.