International development assistance fell sharply in 2025, dropping 23% in real terms to its lowest level since 2015, the OECD reported. Preliminary figures pointed to the largest recorded fall in giving by 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 aid. The collapse was driven overwhelmingly by the United States, which cut official development assistance (ODA) by 56.9% after reductions to USAID, accounting for roughly three-quarters of the overall decline. The US now gives only 0.09% of its gross national income (GNI) in ODA, the smallest share among DAC members.
Key figures from the OECD:
– Total ODA from the 34 DAC members was $174.3 billion (about €148 billion).
– That equals 0.26% of the members’ combined GNI.
– Only Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden met the UN target of 0.7% of GNI.
– Germany, the US, the UK, Japan and France all reduced aid in 2025, and those five accounted for 95.7% of the total reduction.
– The DAC average was 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 growing more prominent as European and US contributions fall.
OECD Secretary‑General Mathias Cormann called the steep fall “deeply concerning,” saying the dramatic cuts among top donors make it imperative to maximise the impact of available resources and to use them more effectively to unlock new 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.
Because of the US reduction, Germany became the largest donor overall for the first time, even though it too fell short of aid targets. Germany’s ODA dropped from 0.68% of GNI in 2024 to 0.56% in 2025, totaling $29.09 billion; the German Development Ministry’s accounting shows the rate would be 0.46% if refugee-related spending inside Germany is excluded. 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 wider downward trend. Philipp Rotmann of the Global Public Policy Institute warned the US pullback creates 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 remained the largest recipient of ODA. Net bilateral aid to war‑torn Ukraine from DAC members fell 38.2%—largely reflecting the US cuts—but new support channelled through EU institutions boosted total assistance to Ukraine to $44.9 billion, an 18.7% increase over 2024. The OECD said this was “the largest volume of net ODA to any single recipient in any year on record,” surpassing DAC members’ combined bilateral ODA to all least developed countries ($28.1 billion) and to all countries in sub‑Saharan Africa ($29.2 billion).
By instrument and channel, bilateral development assistance fell 26.4% while multilateral ODA declined 12.7%. The volume of bilateral development grants plunged 29.3%, a much steeper fall than for bilateral loans, which dropped 10.3%.
Edited by: Alex Berry