About the Team Europe Explorer

Scope

The tool displays Official Development Assistance (ODA) data since 2011 as well as Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) data since 2019. It focuses on the respective funding from the above-mentioned Team Europe approach actors (the ODA Dashboard does not include EBRD data as the EBRD is currently not reporting on ODA to the OECD). Additionally, the tool provides a global comparison to other bilateral donors. These datasets can be explored from various perspectives in the ODA and TOSSD Dashboards and in downloadable ODA Infographics.

Data Sources and Frequency of Updates

ODA Dashboard

The ODA Dashboard draws its data from the OECD’s Creditor Reporting System (CRS), published in the OECD Data Explorer. OECD usually publishes final and detailed ODA data for year N towards the end of year N+1. Correspondingly, the Team Europe Explorer’s ODA Dashboard usually incorporates new ODA data for year N in December of year N+1 or January of year N+2, and it reloads existing ODA data following updates in OECD’s online database around three times per year. The date of the last data reload is always indicated below the menu on the left side of the ODA Dashboard.

TOSSD Dashboard

The TOSSD Dashboard draws its data from the International Forum on TOSSD’s (IFT) database, published in the TOSSD data visualisation tool. The IFT usually publishes TOSSD data for year N in spring of year N+2. Correspondingly, the Team Europe Explorer’s TOSSD Dashboard usually incorporates new TOSSD data for year N in March to May of year N+2, and it may reload existing TOSSD data following potential updates in the IFT’s online database during the year. The date of the last data reload is always indicated below the menu on the left side of the TOSSD Dashboard.

Concepts and Reporting Standards

What is ODA?

Official Development Assistance (ODA) is defined as concessional government aid that promotes and specifically targets the economic development and welfare of developing countries.

Within the Team Europe Explorer’s ODA Dashboard, users can select between two ODA measures: The “Grant equivalent & Net disbursements” view (selected as a default) shows ODA as net disbursements up to 2017 data, and as of 2018 data on a grant equivalent basis where available and as net disbursements otherwise, in line with OECD’s official reporting methodology. The other option is to show ODA as “Gross disbursements”. (See Glossary for further details.)

ODA data are part of the respective donors’ official statistical reporting to the OECD. The OECD’s Creditor Reporting System (CRS) serves the reporting on aid activities from members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), multilateral organisations and other donors, including annual statistics of ODA and other development finance data. The OECD-DAC Secretariat is responsible for data processing, quality control and dissemination.

For more information on ODA, see the OECD website here.

What is TOSSD?

Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) is an international statistical standard to measure the full array of officially supported resources to promote sustainable development in developing countries. It includes both official resources (concessional and non-concessional) and private resources mobilised through official means, which must pass a sustainability test. TOSSD comprises two Pillars:

• Pillar I covers cross-border flows to developing and vulnerable countries.
• Pillar II covers resources to support international public goods, development enablers and/or address global challenges at regional or global levels.

In the context of TOSSD, an activity is deemed to support sustainable development if it directly contributes to at least one of the SDG targets as identified in the official list of the United Nations Statistical Commission and if no substantial detrimental effect is anticipated on any of the other targets. By reporting an activity as TOSSD, the provider confirms that the activity supports the 2030 Agenda and complies with global and regional, economic, environmental, and social standards endorsed by the provider or recipient. The provider further confirms that, where the nature of the activity raises sustainability concerns, steps have been taken to ensure sustainability.

Within the Team Europe Explorer’s TOSSD Dashboard, data is available on gross disbursements and mobilisation, in line with the IFT’s official reporting methodology. (See Glossary for further details.)

TOSSD data are part of the respective providers’ official statistical reporting to the International Forum on TOSSD (IFT). The IFT Secretariat is responsible for data processing, quality control and dissemination, and the data are also subject to the scrutiny of recipient countries through a data review mechanism.

For more information on TOSSD, see the IFT website here.

The EU commitment to aid transparency

In the new European Consensus on Development of 2017, the EU and its Member States reaffirm their commitment to applying the key principles of development effectiveness, among them to enhance transparency and mutual accountability, and to developing tools to present and use development cooperation data more effectively. Furthermore, transparency is one of the six principles of the Global Gateway strategy as delivering projects that work for people will require transparency, accountability, and financial sustainability.

The European Commission sits on the steering committee and is an active supporter of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC). The GPEDC was established in 2011 at the Busan High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which defined the four development effectiveness principles that form the basis of the partnership’s work: one of the four is precisely transparency and mutual accountability.

The European Commission is also a member of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) since the inception of the initiative in 2008; the European Investment Bank joined in 2013. IATI is a common open standard for publication of timely, comprehensive and forward-looking information on resources provided through development cooperation and humanitarian aid.

With a view to enhance the transparency of support to international development provided by Team Europe and to facilitate the use of this data by all stakeholders, the Commission has developed the Team Europe Explorer (formerly called “EU Aid Explorer”) to bring together the relevant data that was originally reported to and published by the OECD as ODA and the IFT as TOSSD. The tool is managed by the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA).

Business Rules

The Team Europe Explorer uses publicly available data from the OECD (ODA in the CRS) and from the International Forum on TOSSD (TOSSD). In order to provide a harmonised view for analysis, it was sometimes necessary to apply assumptions and changes to the original datasets. Users can discover more about the key changes to the data applied in the Team Europe Explorer here.