This overview by the DAC Chair looks at two broad areas where the policies of DAC members could significantly improve the prospects of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, recognising that the prime responsibility lies with developing countries themselves. These are the coherence, from a development standpoint, of DAC members’ overall policies, and the volume and effectiveness of development co-operation. In each case, the overview looks in particular at where collective action could add value to the efforts of individual members. It concludes by addressing a number of policy issues which have proved divisive within the development community, and suggests areas of common ground that might enable the policy debate to be more fruitful and constructive...

This chapter analyses the evolution of aid flows to developing countries, and more specifically recent trends in the volume and allocation of DAC members’ aid. It attempts to isolate the factors that determine the size of their efforts, and to assess the impact of policy ideas in shaping their development co-operation programmes. The past two years have been a turning point for aid volume, which increased by 7.2% in 2002. In a longer perspective, technical co-operation and aid to the social sectors have grown, whereas aid lending and capital project financing have declined. Prospects are good for improved aid volume and effectiveness, despite gathering fiscal pressure in member countries...

The Millennium Declaration marked a major endorsement of the earlier work in the DAC to select seven international development goals, published in 1996 in “Shaping the 21st Century: The Role of Development Co-operation”. This chapter presents data on progress towards the quantitative development goals and targets in the Declaration, with a special focus on the gender aspects of the MDGs. It concludes by describing efforts in the DAC to improve aid effectiveness and implement the Rome Declaration on Harmonisation...

In 2002, DAC members’ aid rose by 7.2% to USD 58.3 billion, the highest real level achieved since 1992. As a share of national income, however, DAC ODA only rose from 0.22% in 2001 to 0.23% in 2002, still 0.10% below the level of ten years earlier. This chapter provides an overview of the aid strategies and programmes of all DAC members and of those other bilateral donors for which information is available...