Hi and welcome to an NZADDs update.

Late last week the OECD released preliminary data on what its Development Assistance Committee members spent on aid in 2021. I was sick with Covid, so tried to ignore it, but fortunately my Devpolicy colleagues have provided a thorough analysis of what’s happening to global aid flows. (The data aren’t quite global, as they exclude China and some other donors, who aren’t transparent enough to tell the OECD about their aid. However, most major donors are included.)

As you can see in the Devpolicy analysis, global aid flows rose notably in 2021, which is good news.

What about New Zealand?

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Earlier this week James Shaw announced that New Zealand will give $1.3 billion as climate finance over 4 years to developing countries. As always, in the maddeningly murky world of aid, we know the headline figures, but beyond that, an awful lot is missing.

Here’s what we know and what we don’t:

What we know
Shaw said that this would be government aid money. Under Paris Agreement rules, the money could potentially have involved private finance, but Shaw’s statements rule this out. Also, under Paris rules the money could have had a loan component. But New Zealand doesn’t loan aid, and there’s been no talk of changing this. The money will almost certainly take the form of government aid grants. This is good.

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