International development aid fell 23% in real terms in 2025 to its lowest level since 2015, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said. Preliminary data pointed to the largest recorded drop in donations from members and associates of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC).
For the first time on record all five of the top international donors reduced their contributions. The fall was driven largely by the United States, which slashed official development assistance (ODA) by 56.9% after cuts to USAID, making Washington responsible for three-quarters of the overall decline. The US now donates just 0.09% of its gross national income (GNI), the lowest share among DAC members.
Key figures from the OECD data:
– Total ODA from the 34 DAC members stood at $174.3 billion (about €148 billion).
– That amounts to 0.26% of these countries’ combined GNI.
– Only four countries—Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden—met the UN target of 0.7% of GNI.
– All five top donors—Germany, the US, the UK, Japan and France—reduced aid in 2025.
– These five accounted for 95.7% of the overall reduction.
– Average DAC donations equated to 0.26% of GNI, roughly one-third of the UN target.
– Non-DAC bilateral providers such as Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are becoming more prominent as European and US contributions fall.
OECD Secretary‑General Mathias Cormann said: “It’s deeply concerning to see this huge drop in ODA in 2025, due to dramatic cuts among the very top donors. In this challenging environment, the significant decline in official development assistance highlights the need to maximise the impact of available resources, and to use them more effectively to unlock new sources of investment.” Carsten Staur, chair of the OECD assistance committee, described the outlook as “extremely sombre.” The OECD also forecast a further 5.8% real‑term decline in 2026.
Germany became the world’s largest donor overall for the first time due to the US reduction, despite itself missing aid targets. Germany’s ODA fell from 0.68% of GNI in 2024 to 0.56% in 2025, totaling $29.09 billion; excluding refugee assistance spent inside Germany, the rate drops to 0.46% by the German Development Ministry’s accounting. The US remains the second largest donor by volume, followed by EU institutions and then the UK.
Aid organisations and analysts criticised Germany’s cuts and the broader downward trend. Security expert Philipp Rotmann at the Global Public Policy Institute warned that the US pullout leaves a “deadly gap” that Russia and China could exploit geopolitically. Charlotte Becker, chairwoman of Oxfam Germany, said the reductions have life‑threatening consequences: “The world’s on fire and Germany continues to cut.” Church charities including Brot für die Welt, Misereor, Caritas International and Diakonie warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” in spending.
Ukraine continued to dominate ODA outlays. While net bilateral aid to wartorn Ukraine from DAC members fell 38.2%—largely reflecting the US cut—new support routed through EU institutions lifted total donations to Ukraine to $44.9 billion, an 18.7% increase on 2024. The OECD said this was “the largest volume of net ODA to any single recipient in any year on record,” exceeding DAC members’ combined bilateral ODA to all least developed countries ($28.1 billion) and to all countries in sub‑Saharan Africa ($29.2 billion).
Across types of aid, bilateral development assistance fell 26.4% while multilateral ODA dropped 12.7%. The volume of bilateral development grants fell 29.3%, a much sharper decline than bilateral loans, which were down 10.3%.
Edited by: Alex Berry