The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is a forum to discuss issues surrounding aid, development and poverty reduction in developing countries. It describes itself as being the "venue and voice" of the world's major donor countries.
The Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD) is the Secretariat of the DAC and is the OECD Directorate within which the DAC operates.
Members
As of 14 July 2023, there are 32 members of DAC (see list below), including the European Union which acts as a full member of the committee. In addition, there are "Participants" and "Observers". The listed Participants at this time are: Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Kuwait, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Observers are: World Bank, the IMF, UNDP, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank.
History
Known at first as the Development Assistance Group (DAG), the committee was set up on 13 January 1960 under the auspices of the OECD's forerunner, the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC). Its first meeting took place in Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.) on 9–11 March 1960, chaired by ambassador Ortona, Italy. A primary concern of the DAG, addressed at its second (July 1960) and third (October 1960) meetings, was to achieve accurate and comparable data reporting by its members on their aid flows to developing countries. In March 1961, the OEEC published the first comprehensive survey of The Flow of Financial Resources to Countries in Course of Economic Development, 1956-59. This was followed by annual reports until 1964.
On 23 July 1961
a Ministerial Resolution decreed that upon the supersession of the OEEC by the OECD, the DAG would become the DAC, and these changes came about in September 1961. The resolution also spelled out the DAC's mandate in five points, the first of which read:
The origins of the so-called "DAC Secretariat" or DCD are as follows. A Development Department (DD), under the direction of Assistant Secretary-General Luciano Giretti of Italy was established within the OECD Secretariat in 1961. It consisted of two branches, a Technical Co-operation Branch and a Development Financial Branch. The latter became the Development Assistance Directorate (DAD) in 1969 and then the Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD) in 1975.
Along with the institution of the DAG/DAC, several developments in the early 1960s completed the institutional framework for aid that is still largely in place. In 1960, the World Bank opened a subsidiary, the International Development Association (IDA) to provide loans to developing countries on easier terms than the Bank's normal lending. The aid agencies of the large donor states were also set up at this time.
Canada created an "External Aid Office" in 1960, which in 1968 became the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). France was the first country to establish a Ministry for Co-operation to be responsible for assistance to independent, mainly African, developing countries in 1961, the predecessor to the French Development Agency, Agence Française de Développement (AFD). Enactment in the United States in 1961 of the Foreign Assistance Act as the basic economic assistance legislation, established the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Later the rest of the member states followed, either establishing an aid agency under the command of its Foreign ministry or as a separate entity.
Functions
The work of the committee concentrates on
how international development cooperation contributes to the capacity of developing countries to participate in the global economy, and the capacity of people to overcome poverty and participate fully in their societies.
To this end, the committee holds regular High Level Meetings and Senior Level Meetings where the ministers or heads of the national aid agencies and other development partners meet to discuss issues related to development and adopt recommendations and resolutions.
The member states are expected to have certain common objectives concerning the conduct of their aid programmes. The committee therefore issues guidelines on the management of development aid. It also publishes a wide range of reports, among them the annual Development Co-operation Report. In addition, as member states recognise the need for greater coherence in policies across sectors that affect developing countries, an OECD-wide initiative on Policy Coherence for Development explores ways to ensure that government policies are mutually supportive of the countries' development goals.