Glossary

Transport connectivity infrastructure

International airports and ports, as well as railways and roads that are cross-border, part of corridors and networks, or link major cities within a country.

Bilateral development partners

Countries that provide assistance and resources to developing countries. Twenty-nine bilateral development partners report to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and the European Union. Other bilateral development partners including Brazil, India, People’s Republic of China, and so on, do not report to the DAC.

Multilateral development partners

International institutions with governmental membership which conduct all or a significant part of their activities in favour of development and aid recipient countries. They include multilateral development banks (e.g. World Bank, regional development banks), United Nations agencies, and regional groupings (e.g. certain European Union and Arab agencies).

Creditor reporting system (CRS)

The OECD/DAC statistical database recording individual aid activities available at https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=CRS1.

Official development assistance (ODA)

Grants or loans to countries and territories on the DAC List of ODA Recipients (http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/documentupload/DAC_List_ODA_Recipients2014to2017_flows_En.pdf) (developing countries) and to multilateral agencies which are: (a) undertaken by the official sector; (b) with promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective; (c) at concessional financial terms (if a loan, having a grant element of at least 25 per cent. In addition to financial flows, technical co-operation is included in aid. Grants, loans and credits for military purposes are excluded. Transfer payments to private individuals (e.g. pensions, reparations or insurance pay-outs) are in general not counted.

Other official flows (OOF)

Transactions by the official sector with countries on the DAC List of ODA Recipients which do not meet the conditions for eligibility as ODA, mainly because they have a grant element of less than 25%.

Official development finance (ODF)

Used in measuring the inflow of resources to recipient countries: includes (a) bilateral ODA, (b) grants and concessional and non-concessional development lending by multilateral financial institutions, and (c) OOF for development purposes (including refinancing loans) which have too low a grant element to qualify as ODA.

Hard transport connectivity infrastructure

Fixed physical infrastructure of roads, railways, airports and ports. Projects supporting hard transport connectivity infrastructure generally involve construction, rehabilitation and modernisation, expansion and upgrade, as well as maintenance of this infrastructure.

Soft transport connectivity infrastructure

Policies, regulatory mechanisms, institutional frameworks, and operations that facilitate the establishment or efficient functioning of the hard components. Projects supporting soft transport connectivity infrastructure generally involve harmonising transport procedures and regulations, enhancing the management of cross-border transport through, inter alia, customs clearance, capacity building of transport authorities, supporting feasibility studies, and so on.