Where does the money go?
In 1970, the United Nations General Assembly agreed on an international target of 0.7% of a donor countries gross national income to be funded into ODA, of which is typically allocated into either multilateral or bilateral aid. Implementing partners will traditionally carry out and deliver development programmes in donor countries such as the UK, of which you can observe the different organisations that managed different areas of ODA funding in Figure 1. Administrative costs are a variable in ODA costs as managing and delivering these development programmes require financing the people and the necessary tools used to complete aid objectives.
Figure 1, Pie chart depicting the different organisations that deliver UK foreign aid bilateral development programmes (2023). Data sourced from ICAI 2023 report on UK foreign aid expenditure.
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is a shorter term, more immediate approach to helping recipient countries with urgent issues due to examples such as natural disasters, conflict etc. in 2024 around 300 million people around the globe were in need of humanitarian aid which is a rise of 200 million since 2014 (OCHA, 2025). Due to this rapidly growing demand, funding towards humanitarian aid is critical. The UK spent £1.46 billion on humanitarian assistance in 2024 (an increase of £0.53 billion since the previous year), of which countries in Africa received the highest amounts of aid (ICAI, 2025). Humanitarian aid presents itself in many different ways, for example recipient countries that have experienced a natural disaster receive relief through shelter, clean water, clothing, food and medical care. Food aid is also given to countries that may be suffering agricultural failure (as well as supplementary kits containing seeds, water pumps etc) and famine due to climate issues or conflict.
Sanitation costs cover new or improved sanitation systems, toilets and introducing education surrounding hygiene which helps developing countries get closer to improving their public health and achieving certain sustainable development goals. Sanitation education also helps bridge a gender gap issue as women are one of the most affected groups by poor sanitation systems, funding this area of humanitarian aid also ticks off criteria for donor countries like the UK that have legislation which requires ministers to reduce gender inequality within ODA programmes.
Water aid, Medical and child care as well as support for refugees are also all elements of humanitarian aid that foreign aid funding goes towards.
In-donor costs
However, within humanitarian aid there is space for donor countries to apply their ODA funds within their own country for dedicating finances towards refugees and asylum seekers, e.g In-donor refugee costs (IDRC). In fact, in 2023 it was reported that a third of all ODA was spent within the UK for examples such as IDRC, resulting in other developmental sector expenditure being displaced. This is due to the home office having to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers in hotels at the high cost of £6.8 million a day (due to a shortage of accommodation in the UK). Other examples of in-donor expenditure is within the educational sector for funding scholarships for students that come from developing countries who choose to study in UK Universities.
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