Percentage of total aid to education allocated to least developed countries

Definition

SDG Indicator 4.5.5: Total gross official development assistance (ODA) for education in least developed countries (including early childhood, primary, secondary, post-secondary non-tertiary and tertiary education) as well as scholarships and student costs in donor countries expressed as a percentage of total gross official development assistance to education. Least developed countries are those defined by the UN Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked States and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) (http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/cdp/ldc/ldc_list.pdf). Only donor countries will be required to report this indicator.

Official development assistance is defined as grants or loans to countries and territories and to multilateral institutions provided by state and local governments or their executive agencies with the objective of promoting the economic development and welfare of developing countries and territories. Such grants or loans are provided on concessional financial terms and, in the case of loans, contain a grant element of at least 25 per cent.

Data source

Administrative data from donor countries and other aid providers on gross official development assistance to education.

Source definition

UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Calculation method

Total gross disbursements for the education sector allocated to least developed countries are expressed as a percentage of total bilateral aid for education.

Data required

Total aid to education and aid to education allocated to least developed countries.

Interpretation

A high value indicates that least developed countries are being prioritised to receive aid for education.

Limitations

The data only address international concessional flows provided by governments.

Purpose

ODA is the accepted measure of international development co-operation. The data thus cover official international assistance to education, including to provide education places for developing country nationals in donor country educational institutions.

Quality standards

The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) compiled data used to produce this indicator based on returns submitted by its member countries and other aid providers. DAC-OECD defines the protocol for reporting these data.

Types of disaggregation

The data can be disaggregated by provider and recipient country.