One for the nerds: blog on the new rules for how debt relief counts as ODA. Tried to remain measured in the blog, but the new rules seem really strange IMO. https://www.cgdev.org/blog/measuring-oda-four-strange-features-new-dac-debt-relief-rules

First, ODA scored for debt relief on loans for which grant equivalent was scored, is double-counting. GE is supposed to measure the expected losses on a loan (more or less). So counting the realized losses on top of that inflates ODA.

Second, same ODA can be scored on grant and forgiven loan, even after substantial repayments. Which is better for recipient: grant of 300, or loan of 300 followed by repayments of 100 and then cancellation? Both could count for same ODA.

Third, in some situations, the more debt has been repaid, the more ODA can be scored for forgiving the remainder. This is a transitional problem (only applies to pre-2018 loans) but it makes no sense.

4th, ceiling on scoring relief only seems to apply to ODA loans. Missed opportunity to rectify worst bit of old rules: recording ODA worth amount cancelled including arrears etc, often many times value of original (commercial) loan.

(I think I remember @SimonMaxwell001, @aprizzon and @CarterPaddy expressing interest in this