Development Policy

With $1.98 billion, Belgium’s ODA reached 0.53% of GNI in 2005. Belgian ODA is targeted at 0.55% of GNI for 2007 and the country is committed to reaching 0.7% of GNI by 2010.  In 2005, Belgium was the world's 6th largest ODA donor (calculated as a percentage of GNI) and the 13th largest ODA donor in absolute terms.

About three-quarters of Belgian ODA is allocated to the least developed and low-income countries, and 60% to Sub-Saharan Africa, most of it to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  In 2005, the top recipients of Belgian ODA were (in order) : DRC, Rwanda, Vietnam, Ecuador, Peru, Senegal, Palestine territories, Niger, Algeria and Burundi. In terms of sectoral distribution, the largest portion of expenditures of the Belgian Directorate General for Development Co-operation was allocated to the formal banking sector (21%), education and training (10%), healthcare (7%) and agriculture, stock-breeding and fishing (6%), social services (5%) and government and civil society (5%) in 2005.

The implementation of this policy is entrusted to the Directorate General for Development Co-operation (DGDC), established within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Co-operation, currently headed by the Minister for Development Cooperation, Mr. Armand De Decker. A public corporation, the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC), was set up in late 1998 to implement government-to-government co-operation and a fund for promoting investments in developing countries,  BIO, has been established in 2001.

Belgium also benefits from a wide network of development actors (NGO’s, Universities, the Belgian Survival Fund, etc.) and contributes to multilateral development cooperation activities through the EU and various UN agencies (including the World Bank). The Budget allocated to multilateral cooperation in 2005 amounted to €419 million ODA (30% of total ODA).