FOREIGN aid from official donors rose to an all-time high of USD 161.2 billion in 2020, up 3.5 per cent in real terms from 2019, boosted by additional spending mobilised to help developing countries grappling with the COVID-19 crisis, according to preliminary data by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Within total Official Development Assistance (ODA) provided by members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in 2020, initial estimates indicate that DAC countries spent USD 12 billion on COVID-19 related activities.

Some of this was new spending and some was redirected from existing development programmes. Most providers said they would not discontinue programmes already in place.

Total ODA equated to around 1 per cent of the amount countries have mobilised over the past year in economic stimulus measures to help their own societies recover from the Covid crisis.

Meanwhile the global vaccine distribution facility COVAX remains severely underfunded, OECD Secretary-General Mr Angel Gurria said during a virtual presentation of the aid data.

"Governments globally have provided USD 16 trillion worth of Covid stimulus measures yet we have only mobilised 1 per cent of this amount to help developing countries cope with a crisis that is unprecedented in our lifetimes ," Mr Gurria said.

"This crisis is a major test for multilateralism and for the very concept of foreign aid. We need to make a much greater effort to help developing countries with vaccine distribution, with hospital services and to support the world's most vulnerable people's incomes and livelihoods to build a truly global recovery," he urged.

COVID-19 related ODA expenditures for top donors rose in a year that saw all other major flows of income for developing countries - trade, foreign direct investment and remittances - decline due to the pandemic, and domestic resources under increased pressure.

The rise in 2020 ODA was also affected, however, by an increase in loans by some donors. Of gross bilateral ODA, 22 per cent was in the form of loans and equity investments, up from around 17 per cent in previous years, with the rest provided as grants.

ODA rose in 16 DAC countries, with some substantially increasing their aid budgets to help developing countries respond to the pandemic. The largest increases were in Canada, Finland and France.It also fell in 13 countries, most notably in Australia, Greece and Italy.

G7 donors provided 76 per cent of total ODA and DAC-EU countries 45 per cent. ODA provided by EU institutions jumped by 25.4 per cent in real terms as they mobilised funds for COVID-19 related activities and increased sovereign lending by 136 per cent over 2019.

Short-term support to help with the COVID-19 crisis focused on health systems, humanitarian aid and food security, according to the OECD survey. Aid providers indicated they would focus in the medium-term on making diagnostics and vaccines available to countries in need, as well as offering support to address the economic and social repercussions of the pandemic.

Net ODA has risen for the most part steadily in volume terms from just below USD 40 billion (in 2019 prices) in 1960. It has more than doubled in real terms (up 110 per cent) since 2000, when the Millennium Development Goals were agreed, despite the impact of the 2008 crisis on provider economies.