In 2020, Flemish official development assistance (ODA) amounted to 67.6 million euros. This is a remarkable record, in extraordinary circumstances. After all, the corona crisis was also felt in the implementation of projects in partner countries South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique.
The increase in ODA in 2020 can not only be explained by optimal spending of the budget for development cooperation. Two other causes also contributed to the increase:
12.2 million euros in additional funding was released last year to better protect developing countries against the effects of climate change. Furthermore, 5.2 million euros from the Flemish climate fund went to projects in the field of international climate financing.
The Department of Economy, Science and Innovation also released an additional 1 million euros for the Institute of Tropical Medicine. The contribution will go to the development of an insectarium for in-depth research into tropical diseases that travel with insects. The resources for the United Nations University (UNU-CRIS) have been increased to 1 million euros in order to develop its own scientific program.
It seems rather unlikely that this historic ODA record will be broken soon. Some projects experienced delays in implementation in 2020. For example, the cessation of air traffic disrupted the timely delivery of parts for desalination technology in Mozambique. Many projects experienced a delay in 2020 due to the pandemic. The effects of this delay will be reflected in the adjusted annual plans for 2021. This will lead to a decrease in expenditure from the budget for development cooperation in 2021.
View the ODA report 2020 here.