This Glossary explains the key terms and concepts used in the Team Europe Explorer. For more detailed information concerning Official Development Assistance (ODA) and financing for sustainable development more broadly, please consult the relevant Glossary, FAQ and resources for reporting on the OECD website. Regarding further information on Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD), please consult the TOSSD website with the respective reporting instructions.
General
Team Europe
Team Europe consists of the EU Institutions (European Commission and European Investment Bank (EIB)), the 27 EU Member States and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The Team Europe approach means joining forces so that our joint external action becomes more than the sum of its parts. By working together in an inclusive and coordinated manner and pooling our resources and expertise, we deliver greater impact for our partner countries. The Team Europe approach increases the capacity of the EU and its Member States to work together with partner countries to address global challenges, mitigate their consequences and allow a social, green and digital transition, while upholding human rights, democracy, the rule of law and gender equality. The Team Europe approach also enhances coordination across the triple humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus.
Team Europe Initiatives (TEIs)
Team Europe Initiatives (TEIs) bring together European development/external action partners to deliver concrete, transformational results for partner countries and regions. They focus on identifying critical priorities that constrain development in a given country or region, where a coordinated and coherent effort by Team Europe would ensure results with a transformative impact.
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that considers it its objective to work to build better policies for better lives. Their goal is to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all. Together with governments, policy makers and citizens, they work on establishing evidence-based international standards and finding solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges, providing a unique forum and knowledge hub for data and analysis, exchange of experiences, best-practice sharing, and advice on public policies and international standard-setting. You can find more information here.
The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) deals with development cooperation matters, grouping the world’s main donors and defining and monitoring global standards in key areas of development. The OECD-DAC Secretariat is responsible for the processing, quality control and dissemination of development finance data reported by the donors, including on ODA. You can find more information here.
The OECD also hosts the Secretariat of the International Forum on TOSSD (IFT). The IFT Secretariat is carrying out a series of country and thematic pilot studies to test the TOSSD methodology and make sure that the framework addresses the information needs of recipient countries. You can find more information here.
International Forum on TOSSD (IFT)
The International Forum on TOSSD (IFT) is an inclusive group of experts from provider countries, recipient countries and multilateral organisations that has been collectively developing TOSSD since 2017. You can find further information here.
ODA Dashboard
Agreement type
The ODA Dashboard differentiates between two agreement types: Bilateral ODA is provided directly by a donor country to an aid recipient country. Multilateral ODA consists in core contributions from donor countries to relevant multilateral organisations.
Channel
The Channel of delivery captures information on the organisations that implement aid projects and are accountable for the funds – such as public sector institutions, NGOs, multilateral organisations, universities or private sector entities. Where several levels of implementation are involved, only the first level is reported to the CRS as channel of delivery.
Channel category
The channel category is the broad classification assigned to the first implementing partner (the channel of delivery) responsible for implementing a development cooperation activity. It categorises the type of organisation through which development finance is delivered – such as public sector institutions, NGOs, multilateral organisations, universities or private sector entities – to support standardised reporting.
Commitment
The total financial commitment for the activity for the lifetime of the activity.
CRS
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 data are part of the respective donors’ official statistical reporting to the OECD. The OECD-DAC Secretariat is responsible for data processing, quality control and dissemination. The DAC and CRS code list is available here.
DAC
OECD’s Development Assistance Committee.
Description
The description of an activity gives information about the aims of the activity, such as why it has been designed and authorised, which purpose it has, who will benefit from it and how it fits with the donor's policy goals. The descriptions in this tool appear in the form and language reported by the donor.
Disbursement
An individual financial payment; the actual amount placed at the disposal of a recipient country or organisation.
Financial instrument
An OECD classification which distinguishes notably between grants, loans and equity investment.
GNI
Gross National Income.
Grant equivalent
ODA on a grant equivalent basis measures the donor effort depending on the level of concessionality. A percentage is assigned to each concessional ODA-eligible loan based on several parameters (risk of default measured ex-ante depending on the beneficiary country’s income group, duration of the loan, interest rate, grace period). This percentage (the so-called “grant element”) is applied to the disbursed amount of the loan to calculate its “grant equivalent”, i.e. the “gift portion” of the loan. The grant equivalent methodology is the new main OECD standard for ODA reporting starting from 2018 data. More information is available on the OECD website here. The ODA Dashboard offers the option of viewing the data on a grant equivalent basis (combined with net disbursements where needed) as the default option.
Gross Disbursements
ODA in gross disbursements measures the full amounts extended to the recipients. The ODA Dashboard offers the option of viewing the data based on gross disbursements, while the ODA Infographics present the data exclusively in gross disbursements.
Income Group
The DAC list of ODA Recipients shows developing countries and territories eligible for receiving ODA. The list presents countries and territories in groups: Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Other Low-Income Countries (LICs), Lower-Middle Income Countries (LMICs) and Upper-Middle Income Countries (UMICs). The list is revised by the DAC every 3 years.
Modality
The type of co-operation modality in the OECD classification which shows the broad category of the activity, e.g. budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds, project-type interventions, other technical assistance, administrative costs etc. Each category is broken down into sub-types.
Net Disbursements
ODA in net disbursements records the actual flows of cash between donor and recipient country. An ODA-eligible loan is initially recorded at ‘face value’ as ODA and subsequent repayments by recipient countries are then subtracted as negative ODA. The net disbursement methodology was the main OECD standard for ODA reporting up to 2017 data and has been applied to a few specific components of ODA after that year when the grant equivalent has not been defined yet. More information is available on the OECD website here. The ODA Dashboard offers the option of viewing the data on a grant equivalent basis combined with net disbursements where needed as the default option.
ODA
Official Development Assistance (ODA) is defined as concessional government aid that promotes and specifically targets the economic development and welfare of developing countries. ODA includes monetary transfers (e.g. grants and loans to governments and projects), non-monetary transfers (e.g. food aid, technical cooperation) and support that does not contain any additional transfer of resources (e.g. debt relief).
In the ODA Dashboard, for the “Consolidated Team Europe view”, the following formula is applied to obtain the total ODA disbursements for a given Member State donor: Bilateral ODA Disbursements + ODA Disbursements for Core Contributions to Multilateral Institutions – EU Member States’ Disbursements for Core Contributions to EU Institutions. The latter element is excluded in order to avoid double-counting between the EU Institutions and EU Member States when adding up their respective ODA to obtain the total for Team Europe. As a result, the ODA funds which EU Member States contribute to the EU Institutions are only accounted for once, i.e. within the projects conducted by the EU Institutions. In addition, it is possible to obtain Member States’ comprehensive ODA via the “EU Member States’ reported data” button in the left-side menu. The “EU Institutions’ reported data” button displays their full ODA amounts, equal to the amounts included for them in the “Consolidated Team Europe view”.
In the ODA Infographics, the individual bilateral ODA from each of the 27 Member States and from EU Institutions respectively is shown comprehensively. The calculation of Team Europe’s total ODA, where their bilateral ODA and their multilateral core (incl. voluntary) contributions (in the form of imputed multilateral ODA to the respective recipient) are added up, removes the overlap between EU Institutions and the 27 Member States resulting from the fact that Member States are also providing such core contributions to EU Institutions.
Policy Markers
The policy markers indicate to which degree an activity addresses certain cross-sectoral development-policy objectives, i.e. whether it is a “principal”, “significant” or “not (yet) targeted” objective. The Rio and environment markers concern Environment, Biodiversity, Desertification, Climate change mitigation and Climate change adaptation. There are also markers for Gender Equality and other areas.
Recipient
The country receiving the ODA from the donors.
Recipient Group
The recipients are grouped into three categories in the tool to allow for a dedicated drill-down: recipient continent, recipient region and recipient country.
Sector
The specific area that an activity supports at granular level, e.g. primary education and higher education, basic health care and health infrastructure, road transport and water transport, or wind energy and energy research etc., equal to the OECD CRS purpose codes. When a sector is not (correctly) reported by the donor or when an activity cannot be allocated to a particular sector, it is presented as Unallocated. Voluntary codes are not displayed and the respective contributions are included in their parent CRS purpose code.
Sector Category
The overarching category of the area that an activity supports more generally, e.g. education, health, transport and storage or energy etc., corresponding to the DAC 5 codes (one level above the OECD CRS purpose codes).
Donor Agency
Agency within the donor country that has budget responsibility and controls the activity for its own account. The donor agency is the government entity (central, state or local government agency or department) financing the activity from its own budget. For multilateral organisations, this identifies the department or fund financing the activity within the institution.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015.
Team Europe Initiatives (TEIs)
Team Europe Initiatives (TEIs) are the sum of several coordinated, but mostly independent interventions implemented by individual Team Europe approach actors under an agreed Joint Intervention Logic. Tracking financial contributions to TEIs showcases their impact in development cooperation, contributing to transparency and accountability and providing visibility to the work of the European Union and its Member States.
In order to identify activities that contribute to TEIs, the keyword field in the CRS is used.
Team Europe’s ODA targeting climate change
This graph in the ODA infographics shows the absolute value of Team Europe’s total bilateral ODA for climate change mitigation and adaptation, differentiating between main and principal objective.
Unallocated (Recipient)
This Unallocated category represents flows that cannot be allocated to a geographical area (country or region). They typically include core funding to multilateral organisations and cases when countries or regions have not been reported correctly (data quality issue). In addition, operational flows that are part of global programmes and cannot be allocated to a country or a region, as well as the administrative expenditure eligible as ODA are also counted as geographically “unallocated”.
Unallocated (Sector)
This Unallocated category represents flows that cannot be allocated to a sector. They typically include core funding to multilateral organisations and cases when sectors have not been reported correctly (data quality issue).
Year
The year represents a calendar year in which the disbursement (payment) under an activity was made.
TOSSD Dashboard
Channel of delivery
Channels of delivery are entities that have implementing responsibility over the activity, are normally linked to the provider agency by a contract or other binding agreement, and are directly accountable to it. They are a key element of the TOSSD framework since they help identify the institution responsible for the execution of an activity, which is essential in order to track flows and improve accountability in both provider and partner countries. Where activities have several implementers, the principal implementer is the one that is reported (e.g. the entity receiving the most funding). In the case of loans, the borrower is the one reported (i.e. the first entity outside the provider country that receives the funds).
Development enablers
Development enablers are the means that help provide International Public Goods (IPGs) and/or address global challenges. They often have the characteristics of IPGs. They can be seen as “intermediate” IPGs as opposed to final IPGs.
Financial Instrument
TOSSD resource flows are provided through numerous financial instruments. These are categorised as grants, debt instruments, mezzanine finance instruments, equities and shares in collective investment vehicles, direct provider spending as well as subsidies and similar transfers. Included are also instruments that generate contingent liabilities but not necessarily a flow from the provider to the recipient (e.g. guarantees).
Global challenges
Global challenges are issues or concerns that bring disutility on a global scale and that need to be addressed globally. There is a significant overlap between International Public Goods (IPGs) and global challenges. Global challenges are often the opposite of IPGs (e.g. climate change and stable climate). However, not all activities addressing global challenges are IPGs (e.g. primary education programmes). Global challenges are addressed through TOSSD resources.
International Public Goods (IPGs)
International Public Goods (IPGs) are goods which provide benefits that are non-exclusive and available for all to consume at least in two countries. The term “good” refers to resources, products, services, institutions, policies and conditions. IPGs are supported by TOSSD resources.
Mobilised amounts
Amounts mobilised from the private sector, where a causal link between the provision of private finance and the official intervention can be established. Data on amounts mobilised from the private sector are disclosed partially for data sensitivity reasons. Restrictive data disclosure regimes apply to mobilisation data reported in TOSSD by multilateral development banks and some other multilateral organisations, following specific provisions in data-sharing agreements with some of these institutions. Data are disseminated in the form of semi-aggregates and include estimated data gaps.
Modality
The TOSSD modality describes the form in which support is provided. These modalities are categorised as budget support; core contributions to NGOs, other private bodies, Public-Private Partnerships and research institutes; core contributions to multilateral organisations; contributions to specific-purpose programmes and funds managed by implementing partners (excluding self-benefit); projects; in-kind technical cooperation experts; other technical cooperation; research and development; scholarships and imputed students costs in provider countries; debt relief; support to refugees, protected persons and migrants; administrative costs and expenditures in the provider country not included elsewhere.
Officially-supported
TOSSD aims to capture the entirety of instruments and modalities used by official provider countries and organisations to support sustainable development, including mechanisms that mobilise resources from the private sector. Therefore, in the context of TOSSD, “officially-supported resources” are defined as:
- resources provided by official agencies, including state and local governments, or by their executive agencies, and public sector corporations;
- private resources mobilised by official interventions, where a direct causal link between the official intervention and the private resources can be demonstrated.
Overall TOSSD
Includes all officially-supported resource flows to promote sustainable development in developing countries. This encompasses cross-border flows and resources to support International Public Goods, as well as mobilised private finance.
Pillar I
Pillar I of TOSSD includes activities that involve a cross-border resource flow to a country on the List of TOSSD recipients (available as part of the TOSSD code lists here). This list includes all countries and territories that were present on the “DAC List of ODA recipients” in 2015 (the year when the 2030 Agenda was adopted), adjusted over time for any other countries and territories that have activated the TOSSD opt-in/opt-out procedure.
Pillar II
Pillar II of TOSSD covers global and regional expenditures provided in support of International Public Goods (IPGs) and development enablers and/or to address global challenges. It includes activities whose benefits are of transnational reach. Resources under Pillar II are provided at two levels:
- activities of multilateral, global or regional institutions that promote international cooperation for sustainable development (e.g. norm-setting, international oversight, knowledge generation and dissemination);
- certain expenditures incurred by providers in their own countries or in non-TOSSD recipient countries (e.g. research and support to refugees).
Policy Markers
Policy Markers indicate to which degree an activity addresses certain cross-sectoral development-policy objectives. These cover the areas of economic well-being, social development, environmental sustainability and regeneration and democratic accountability, protection of human rights and the rule of law. Policy markers are based on a three-point scoring system, to qualitatively track the financial flows: “principal”, “significant” or “not targeted” objective. The Rio and environment markers concern Environment, Biodiversity, Desertification, Climate change mitigation and Climate change adaptation. There are also markers for Gender Equality and other areas.
Provider
The reporting country or institution. For Team Europe, there are currently 30 providers (27 EU Member States, the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development).
Provider Agency
Agency within the provider country that has budget responsibility and controls the activity for its own account. The provider agency is the government entity (central, state or local government agency or department) financing the activity from its own budget. For multilateral organisations, this identifies the department or fund financing the activity within the institution.
- Bilateral providers are countries and territories that undertake activities in support of sustainable development in third countries.
- Multilateral providers are international agencies, institutions, organisations or funds whose members are governments and who are represented at the highest decision-taking level in the institution by persons acting in an official capacity and not as individuals. Multilateral institutions include i) United Nations agencies, programmes, funds and commissions; ii) the International Monetary Fund; iii) the World Bank Group; iv) regional development banks; v) the European Union institutions; and vi) other multilateral funds, partnerships, initiatives and financing facilities.
Sector
The specific area that an activity supports, e.g. education, health, agriculture, infrastructure or governance, corresponding to the OECD CRS purpose codes which are also used in TOSSD reporting. When a sector is not (correctly) reported by the donor or when an activity cannot be allocated to a particular sector, it is presented as Unallocated.
TOSSD
Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) is a statistical measure that includes all officially-supported resources to promote sustainable development in developing countries. This includes i) cross-border flows to developing and vulnerable countries and ii) resources to support development enablers and/or address global challenges at regional or global levels. TOSSD measures both official resources and private resources mobilised through official means.
In the TOSSD Dashboard, for the “Consolidated Team Europe view”, the data for the EU Institutions, EU Member States and EBRD is presented without overlap, i.e. removing from Member States' and EBRD's amounts any contributions that would constitute double-counting with the amounts displayed for other Team Europe approach actors. In particular, this means removing Member States' core contributions provided to EU Institutions and their bilateral earmarked contributions provided through EU Institutions, removing the relevant part of Member States’ core contributions to the EBRD and removing the part of EBRD’s outflows that does not stem from its own resources. In addition, it is possible to obtain Member States’ comprehensive TOSSD via the “EU Member States’ reported data” button and to obtain the EBRD’s comprehensive TOSSD via the “EBRD’s reported data” button in the left-side menu. The “EU Institutions’ reported data” button displays their full TOSSD amounts, equal to the amounts included for them in the “Consolidated Team Europe view”.
TOSSD Recipient
Countries and territories which receive cross-border resource flows from providers and which were present on the “DAC List of ODA recipients” in 2015 (the year when the 2030 Agenda was adopted), adjusted over time for any other countries and territories that have activated the TOSSD opt-in/opt-out procedure.