Official Development Assistance (ODA) refers to grants or loans with relaxed conditions provided by public institutions mainly for the purpose of contributing to economic development and the improvement of welfare, which are directed toward developing countries and regions on the list of countries and regions for the receipt of aid created by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

ODA consists of bilateral assistance that supports developing countries directly and multilateral assistance that provides support through international institutions. Bilateral assistance can be divided into grants and government loans. Grants refer to assistance provided gratuitously to developing countries as "grant aid" or "technical cooperation." Meanwhile, government loans consist of "loan aid (ODA loan)" that are premised on repayment by developing countries in the future. Multilateral assistance includes contributions to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and contributions and investments for the World Bank and so on.

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