Untied aid in Development Co-operation

Data sourced from the OECD Creditor Reporting System for tying status is reported at commitment level.

The three possible tying status values are:

• Untied aid: aid whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all donors adhering to the DAC Recommendation on Untying ODA  and substantially all aid recipient countries and territories. 
• Partially untied: aid to procure goods and services from a restricted number of countries which must include substantially all aid recipient countries and territories and can include the donor country.
• Tied aid: aid where procurement is limited to the donor country or to a group of countries which does not include substantially all aid recipient countries and territories.

Two main indicators are used based on two different scopes:

• Overall bilateral ODA: bilateral ODA excluding some co-operation modalities for which tying status is not reportable, such as costs to support refugees, imputed student costs, scholarships, development awareness and administrative costs. 
• Bilateral ODA covered by the DAC Recommendation on Untying: 
   -     o Includes least developed countries (LDCs), heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs), other low-income countries (OLICs), and countries and territories eligible solely for financing from the International Development Association (IDA-only). 
  -    Excludes in-donor costs (support to refugees, student costs, development awareness and administrative costs), free-standing technical cooperation, debt relief except for debt swaps, humanitarian assistance, food aid and core contributions to non-governmental organisations. 

The type of funding categories “flexible funding” and “project-based funding” comprise the following modalities:

• Flexible funding:
  -    Bilateral ODA covered by the Recommendation: general budget support (A01) and sector budget support (A02), contributions to specific-purpose programmes and funds managed by implementing partners (B03), contributions to multi-donor/multi-entity funding mechanisms (B031), contributions to single-donor funding mechanisms and contributions earmarked for a specific funding window or geographical location (B032), basket funds/pooled funding (B04), core support to NGOs, private bodies, public-private partnerships and research institutes (B01).
  -    Overall bilateral ODA: general budget support (A01) and sector budget support (A02), contributions to specific-purpose programmes and funds managed by implementing partners (B03), contributions to multi-donor/multi-entity funding mechanisms (B031), contributions to single-donor funding mechanisms and contributions earmarked for a specific funding window or geographical location (B032), basket funds/pooled funding (B04), core support to NGOs, private bodies, public-private partnerships and research institutes (B01), debt relief excluding debt swaps (F01 and purpose codes different from 60061, 60062).
  
• Project-based funding:
  -     Bilateral ODA covered by the Recommendation: project type interventions (C01), contributions to multi-donor/single-entity funding mechanisms (B033), debt swaps (modality F01 and purpose codes 60061, 60062).
  -    Overall bilateral ODA: pproject type interventions (C01), contributions to multi-donor/single-entity funding mechanisms (B033), other technical assistance (D02), donor country personnel (D01), debt swaps (modality F01 and purpose codes 60061, 60062).

Investment projects include project type interventions (C01) with the investment project flag (InvestmentProject=1) and exclude commitments toward Banking and Financial Services sectors (240XX).

Data is sourced from the OECD DAC Contract Awards database. Contracts of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 700 000 or more are reported individually, with detailed information on the contract and the company/companies awarded. Smaller contracts are reported in aggregate. Information is limited to the number and total value of contracts awarded to suppliers from the donor country, other donor countries, developing countries and multilateral organisations.

Regarding the scope of reporting, most Adherents report untied contracts covering all ODA recipient countries. However, a few (Austria and the EU Institutions) generally limit reporting to countries covered by the Recommendation.

Bilateral ODA commitments reported in the CRS are not fully reflected in contract award data, which captures only untied ODA with a procurement component. Because procurement is not tracked in the CRS, the category “project-based funding” is used as the closest proxy. Flexible funding (e.g. budget support or contributions to multi-donor trust funds) is excluded from contract award data, as it is inherently untied and not directly linked to procurement. Tied aid is also excluded, since the geographical origin of the supplier is already known.

Contract awards data cover both commercial procurement contracts (for services, works, and supplies) and grant contracts. Most donors report only commercial procurement contracts, although a few also include grant contracts.

The data on the type of commercial contract (supplies, works, services, grants) is reported voluntarily by several Adherents (France, Germany, the Netherlands and the EU Institutions) for individual contracts. For other Adherents (Australia, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States), the information was primarily assigned by the OECD Secretariat based on available information . 

Some Adherents have limited or no contract award data to report, including Greece, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Sweden. Some Adherents, such as Poland and Portugal, generally have only small contracts to report at aggregate level.

Suppliers are grouped into five categories based on geographical origin: donor country (domestic suppliers), other donor countries (other OECD and non-DAC donors), developing countries covered by the Recommendation, other developing countries and multilateral organisations.

Recipient country refers to the country where the ODA contract is implemented.