On 11 March 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers approved an informative report “On the accession of the Republic of Latvia to the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development”, thus reaffirming Latvia’s aspirations to become a member of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). On 7 March, a decision in support of Latvia was also adopted by the OECD DAC member countries.
Latvia’s accession to the DAC will take place on 19 March 2025, when the country is to become the 33rd member of the committee. The DAC currently comprises 31 OECD member countries and the European Union.
The OECD DAC is a leading international forum that brings together countries that provide support in the field of development cooperation. For Latvia, membership in the OECD DAC means a significant step in the strengthening of its development cooperation policy and its international role, especially with the updating of support for Ukraine in the OECD community. The DAC membership opens up opportunities for Latvia to build new partnerships in development cooperation, including the involvement of Latvian experts in international cooperation. Experience acquired by the OECD and DAC member countries s will allow Latvia to make its development cooperation system more effective and sustainable.
Latvia has been working actively to improve its development cooperation policy system based on the OECD DAC standards. Latvia embarked on the process of its accession to the OECD DAC on 24 April 2024, when the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, submitted Latvia’s letter of application for membership of the committee. Following a decision by the DAC member countries on 10 October, evaluation was launched of Latvia’s development cooperation policy system, and representatives from the OECD Development Cooperation Directorate (DCD) presented their evaluation report on Latvia’s in Paris on 20 February 2025. It contained assessment of the compliance of Latvia’s development cooperation system with the DAC accession criteria and concluded that Latvia’s development cooperation policy system meets the OECD DAC accession criteria.
In addition to compliance with the accession criteria, the OECD report evaluated positively Latvia’s strategic approach to development cooperation, with particular emphasis on support to Ukraine and the Eastern Partnership countries. It was concluded that Latvia has a clear institutional and policy planning system in place in the field of development cooperation, which also covers cross-sectoral cooperation and engagement with civil society. At the same time, active cooperation with the OECD is continued in various formats with the aim of enhancing the development cooperation policy system, for example, making improvements to the monitoring and evaluation system so that it fully meets OECD standards.
