Zhou Hong: From ODA to TOSSD -the change of international development assistance statistics methods

Zhou Hong

Director of the International Department of International Academy of Social Sciences/Member and researcher of the Department of Studies;

Research direction: international politics, welfare countries, European research, foreign aid;

Representative works: "Where to Welfare Country", "Society to Everyone's Enjoyment", "What the EU is the Power of the EU", "Inventory of China -Europe Strategic Partnership", "Foreign Aid and International Relations", "Foreign Aid Books", "Unified Diplomacy in Germany" Essence

The statistics of international development assistance are not only a technical issue. The determination of the statistical indicators depends on the understanding of the assistance of the aid of international development and the setting of international development goals. After decades of development after World War II, international development assistance is exactly in a transition period from concept to goals to practice and then practice. Essence

The background of the concept of "official development assistance"

The concept of "official development assistance" (ODA) was born in the 1960s and 1970s. Beginning in 1961, the "resource traffic" from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from the flow of member states to underdeveloped countries and regions included gifts, loans, export credit and hybrid loans credit, related finance, private investment, etc. A variety of forms. In this state, official development aid is not prominent.为了彰显经合组织发援会成员国在国际发展援助领域里的优势和主导地位，也由于一些发展中国家对增加优惠性融资的呼吁，在经合组织发援会的整合和推动下，经The member states of the co -organized assisted association reached a consensus to exclude export credit in addition to international development assistance, and determined the preferential nature of official development assistance. In 1967, under the commission of the Secretary -General of the United Nations, an expert report entitled "Resource Traffic Measures for Developing countries" was released. In 1968, the Economic Organization Assistance Association set up a special group of statistical issues, and in 1969 explained the concept of "official development assistance" in detail, because only by determining the concept of official development assistance, can it be set clearly for it for it. The goals and statistical standards. In 1969, according to the newly established concept, many capital flows between the country were excluded, and the correlation and preferential degree of the aid for the economic and social development (ie, 25%of the gift ingredients). The Pilrson Report proposed that by 1975, at the latest to 1980, the "official development assistance" was raised to a suggestion of 0.7%of the national income of the aid country. In 1970, the UN General Assembly passed the resolution calling on the "every economic developed country" to appropriation for official development aid to reach 0.7%of the national revenue.

The statistical concept of official development aid highlights the one -way relationship between the relationship between the development aid committee (DAC) aid and the development of the aid countries in the development, and also highlights the advantages and dominance of Western developed countries in the field of international development assistance. The developed countries that provide official development assistance to formulate official development assistance and conditions, provide channels and funds for assistance, and determine different assistance sides of different assistances in different periods according to the Western values ​​and research and judgment of the international situation in different periods. The focus. The statistical rules of DAC have also been involved in the economic system, social development and political reforms of the aid country through additional political and ideological conditions, and have become diplomatic tools in the Cold War and the Cold War.

"Official Development Assistance" statistical criteria for defects

After entering the 21st century, the most prominent changes in the field of international development assistance were South -South cooperation practices of emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. In contrast, the narrowness of ODA concept is even more prominent. Economist Lin Yifu proposed in the book "Beyond Development Assistance: Reconstruction of the New Concepts of Development and Cooperation in a Multi -World", "ODA cannot calculate many emerging financing mechanisms as statistical standards, such as PPP (public and private cooperation mechanism), catalytic catalytic Tools, fiscal guarantees, and marketing, etc., the effect behind this assistance cannot be calculated. " ODA's decades of practice shows that its investment in promoting "economic development and welfare" is not obvious, and there are the following five disadvantages.

First, the restrictions are too strong. Official development assistance is not less than 25%of the preferential threshold for the flow of capital flow and international cooperation that can effectively promote development, such as export credit, large and low preferential infrastructure investment, South -South cooperation, and even 24.99%of preferential loans. Fund cannot be included in official development assistance, but can only be regarded as other official flows. Due to the huge gap between official development aid and development needs, it has become an important issue to mobilize unofficial development assistance resources and redefine other official flows.

Second, the validity is doubtful. The effectiveness of international development assistance has always been a hot issue in the debate of developing economists. Scholars have obtained many contradictory conclusions through empirical research and quantitative analysis, but they have reached a basic consensus on the existing international development aid model to be improved.

Third, dominant disputes. The guidelines, assistance statistical standards, and assistance points of the assistance of the Economic Organization Development Association depends on the members of the Economic Cooperation Assistant (that is, the assistant). The lack of autonomy in development strategies has become the reason why many aid countries lack the driving force for development. Many development plans only take into account the strategy, interests, preferences and market needs of the aid countries, and ignore the national conditions and development methods and development methods of the aid countries. This is also the key to the long -term difficulty of being aid.

Fourth, politics is prominent. Because the official development aid has been the statistical rules of the "club members" of the "club members" of Economic Organizations and Assistance, the investment direction depends on the judgment of the members of the Economic Organization Association on the bottlenecks of international development and development. The country's practical development needs and development characteristics, but to transfer the governance model of the aid country to the recipient through the official development assistance, especially the universal democracy and abstract human rights as the necessary condition for development, so that the financial transfer of official development assistance to the government's development assistance Folding on a strong political color. Fifth, there are significant limitations. From 2000 to 2017, the proportion of non -co -organizational assistance associations in the middle -income countries and emerging economies increased from 2%to 10%from 2%to 10%. The pattern of division. In addition, according to the current official development assistance statistical standards, other development aid helping emerging financing mechanisms cannot be calculated in them, such as public and private cooperation mechanisms, unity mechanisms (supporting public funds or sovereign funds), and catalytic mechanisms (using public finances such as such as such as public finances, Creation markets such as fiscal guarantee, equity investment and redemption capital, etc., are excluded by reducing market risk to promote the development of private enterprises).

The concept of "official support for sustainable development" came into being

In 2011, the "Fourth Assistance Effective High -level Forum" proposed that developed countries and emerging economies should establish a "new cooperative relationship" and advocate "development effectiveness" to replace "assistance effectiveness". As "development effectiveness" has become the theme of international development assistance, the organization and subordinate DAC have initiated the reform of the statistical system. According to the OECD, the traditional ODA is not enough to respond to the challenges facing developing countries, nor can it reflect the state of multiple international development aid subjects to participate in international development. In order to maintain ODA's right to speak in the field of international development assistance, it is necessary to make appropriate expansion on the basis of traditional ODA and collect development resources in multi -channel collection. This expansion will inevitably bring the innovation of statistical standards for development assistance. In the discussion on ODA reform, a new concept "General Development of Sustainable Development" (TOSSD) gradually appeared, and began to be the point of view of scholars, which was later advocated by OECD/DAC. The total official support for sustainable development is a set of new international statistical indicators that are used to count the resources and total amount of officials mobilized and the total amount of private funds. Sustainable development resources, provide information for strategic planning, evaluate the progress of supply and demand matching, and finally support the implementation of the United Nations sustainable development strategy and sustainable development goals. The key difference between TOSSD and ODA is that they are trying to include all official resources for sustainable development, including OECD/DAC and southern countries, which will be implemented for a long time to integrate DAC countries and southern countries. As a statistical standard, the key difference between TOSSD and ODA is the different understanding of "development" and "development aid resources". In contrast, the development field of TOSSD is wider, and the starting point is a reinforcement country instead of aid countries, so the statistical scope is relatively wide.

In 2015, the United Nations Sustainable Development Aired Aired ADC provided a basis for changing the statistical standards for international development. The "UN 2030 Sustainable Development AD 2030" adopted by the 70th session of the United Nations proposed 17 sustainable development goals.为了实现2030年可持续发展目标，联合国赞成进一步发掘来自发达国家和发展中国家的资源，统筹计量所有国家对可持续发展贡献，而TOSSD计划将官方发展援助、其他官方资金流量、南南合作和The cooperation between the three sides, the support of international public products, and the private funds mobilized by official development intervention measures are included in the statistical framework. With the United Nations Sustainable Development Objective (SDG) as a threshold, the international development assistance is redefined. With the common participation of both south and south, the efforts to integrate international development resources are being unfolding.

The change of international development aid statistics from ODA to TOSSD indicates that a fundamental turning point is undergoing a fundamental turning in the field of international development aid. The background of this turning point is the decline in the leading position of Western developed countries in the field of international development aid. Facing the role of the northern and south in the field of international development assistance, OECD tries to expand the understanding of development resources, and through the introduction of the concept of statistics from TOSSD, more resources are included in the statistics and practice of international assistance. The continuous development agenda platform has achieved the goal of unified global international development assistance statistics that have been achieved for many years and have not achieved. This is not only a key part of global governance reform, but also the core step of re -deploying North -South relations, which will have a huge impact on international development cooperation, North -South relations, and South -South cooperation.

Although the concept of TOSSD statistics is still in discussion, from the experiments of the UN expert group and TOSSD in some developing countries, it is clear that it changes the north -south weights and the nature of the north -south relationship in the field of international development aid. The new statistical standards acknowledge that the main body of the behavior in the field of international development aid is diverse and two -way. International development is a general pursuit of human beings. It requires comprehensive efforts of humans to create a comparative advantage of various behaviors and complement each other. Overall. The ODA concept is strictly modified from broadly to highlight the particularity of Western developed countries in the field of development aid, and maintain inequality assistance and aid relationships. Under the significant results of South -South cooperation, DAC has relaxed the statistical standards of international development assistance, and strives to incorporate South -South cooperation into the unified statistics and practice of international development assistance. This process will be full of games, compromise and reference. For emerging economies, these changes are both challenges and opportunities. Only by adhering to the priority of development, the emphasis on the rights and interests of the reinforcements, and the benefit of the beneficial experience of various countries, can it be possible to form a community of human development community in the practice of the United Nations sustainable development goals. For China, the change of statistics of international development assistance is not only a rare opportunity to grasp the right to speak, but also a challenge to a severe update governance concept and method. And actively deal with it.

Source: China Social Science Network-Journal of Social Sciences of China

Author: Zhou Hong

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