Development assistance is a response of developed countries to the problem of poverty that a considerable number of countries in the 21st century face. Poor countries are not capable of developing solely on their own, therefore they rely on assistance offered by other countries and international institutions.

The overcoming of the global development gap is a challenge for today. Hunger and poverty problems require global solutions on the one hand, and the individual involvement of each state on the other.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) consists of donations and loans granted to developing countries by official government institutions of donor states or international organisations whose aim is to support the economic development and well-being of those countries. Loans are qualified as Official Development Assistance only when they include a donation part in the amount constituting at least 25% of the assistance value.

Donations and loans for military purposes are not qualified as Official Development Assistance. Another condition for classifying assistance as Official Development Assistance is the inclusion of the beneficiary country in the list determined by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

The basic forms of development assistance include: assistance in cash, assistance in kind and technical assistance.

Depending on the manner of assistance, we can distinguish bilateral, trilateral and multilateral assistance.

Bilateral assistance is addressed directly to institutions, organisations and people in the beneficiary country. Trilateral assistance consists in providing development assistance in unison with another donor country – Canada is one of the countries with which Poland co-operates in this way. In 2006, within the framework of the Canadian Official Development Assistance in Central Europe, we are financing assistance projects of Polish NGOs and their partners in developing countries together with Canada. Multilateral assistance is provided through international institutions (see also: How we provide assistance).