DAC exists to help its members coordinate their development assistance and to encourage the expansion and improve the effectiveness of the aggregate resources flowing to recipient economies. In this capacity DAC monitors the flow of all financial resources, but its main concern is official development assistance (ODA). Grants or loans to countries and territories on the DAC list of aid recipients have to meet three criteria to be counted as ODA. They are provided by official agencies, including state and local governments, or by their executive agencies. They promote economic development and welfare as the main objective. And they are provided on concessional financial terms (loans must have a grant element of at least 25 percent, calculated at a discount rate of 10 percent). The DAC Statistical Reporting Directives provide the most detailed explanation of this definition and all ODA-related rules.

OECD's IDS database provides a set of readily available basic data that enables analysis on where aid goes, what purposes it serves and what policies it aims to implement, on a comparable basis for all DAC members. The aid data is most commonly used to analyze the sectoral and geographical breakdown of aid for selected years and donors or groups of donors. The data can also be used to target specific policy issues (e.g. tying status of aid) and monitor donors' compliance with various international recommendations in the field of development co-operation.
Technical cooperation grants (BoP, current US$)
Data on ODA is for aid-receiving countries. The data cover loans and grants from DAC member countries, multilateral organizations, and non-DAC donors. They do not reflect aid given by recipient countries to other developing countries. As a result, some countries that are net donors (such as Saudi Arabia) are shown as aid recipients. The indicator does not distinguish types of aid (program, project, or food aid; emergency assistance; or post-conflict peacekeeping assistance), which may have different effects on the economy.

Because this indicator relies on information from donors, it is not necessarily consistent with information recorded by recipients in the balance of payments, which often excludes all or some technical assistance - particularly payments to expatriates made directly by the donor. Similarly, grant commodity aid may not always be recorded in trade data or in the balance of payments. Moreover, DAC statistics exclude aid for military and antiterrorism purposes.

The aggregates refer to World Bank classifications of economies and therefore may differ from those of the OECD.
Technical cooperation grants include free-standing technical cooperation grants, which are intended to finance the transfer of technical and managerial skills or of technology for the purpose of building up general national capacity without reference to any specific investment projects; and investment-related technical cooperation grants, which are provided to strengthen the capacity to execute specific investment projects. Data are in current U.S. dollars.
Technical cooperation contributions take the form mainly of the supply of human resources from donors or action directed to human resources (such as training or advice). Also included are aid for promoting development awareness and aid provided to refugees in the donor economy. Assistance specifically to facilitate a capital project is not included. Technical cooperation ncludes both grants to nationals of aid recipient countries receiving education or training at home or abroad and payments to consultants, advisers and similar personnel as well as teachers and administrators serving in recipient countries (including the cost of associated equipment).

The flows of official and private financial resources from the members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to developing economies are compiled by DAC, based principally on reporting by DAC members using standard questionnaires issued by the DAC Secretariat. A network of statistical correspondents collects data from aid agencies and government departments (central, state and local) on an ongoing basis. Their task is also to ensure that reporting conforms to the Reporting Directives (definitions and classifications) agreed by the DAC.

The official development assistance (ODA) estimates are published annually at the end of the calendar year in International Development Statistics (IDS) database. Data are in current U.S. dollars.