Official development assistance

Official development assistance (ODA) is government aid that promotes and specifically targets the economic development and welfare of developing countries. The concept was first adopted by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1969.

Peacebuilding-related categories
The categories of ODA that are considered to be peacebuilding-related are based on the areas of recurring needs highlighted in the 2009 report of the Secretary-General on peacebuilding in the immediate aftermath of conflict (A/63/881–S/2009/304) and are as follows:

ODA coefficient for peacekeeping
United Nations peacekeeping missions are mandated to perform several of the peacebuilding-related categories of ODA. However, they are not treated as donors, but rather as a channel for ODA from Member States. The ODA coefficient for peacekeeping is the percentage of assessed contributions for peacekeeping that are reportable as ODA. Since 2017, the ODA coefficient has been set at 15%.

Elements
The current coefficient of 15% reflects 7.8% from civilian components, 3.8% from police components, and 3.9% of military components of peacekeeping operations.

The following activities conducted by peacekeeping missions are considered ODA-eligible:
 * Human rights and election monitoring;
 * Reintegration of demobilized soldiers;
 * Rehabilitation of basic national infrastructure;
 * Monitoring or retraining of civil administrators and police forces;
 * Security sector reform and other rule of law-related activities;
 * Training in customs and border control procedures;
 * Advice or training in fiscal or macroeconomic stabilization policy;
 * Repatriation and demobilization of armed factions, and disposal of their weapons; and
 * Explosive mine removal.

The methodology for estimating the ODA-eligible share of peacekeeping budgets involves a detailed analysis of the budgets of the largest peacekeeping operations to determine the amount of the budgets used for the aforementioned activities.

Evolution
Growing recognition that development and peace and security activities are interdependent led the DAC to agree to count 6% of multilateral contributions to UN peacekeeping operations as ODA in 2006. This "ODA coefficient" was subsequently increased to 7% in 2007. Originally, the ODA coefficient only covered civilian staff costs and operational costs of missions; the uniformed components of missions were not reportable as ODA. Following the February 2016 DAC high-level meeting, the coefficient was increased to 15% to reflect the contributions of military and police components to the ODA-eligible activities. The costs of military contingents (i.e. personnel and equipment) remain outside the scope of ODA.