In the present context, ODA refers to the aid of the Czech government by transferring financial, material, technical or expert aid in order to achieve sustainable development in partner countries.

The Development Cooperation Strategy 2010-2017 was approved by the Czech government in May 2010 and it replaced the previous document for the period 2006-2010. The Czech Republic gives priority to 10 countries which were chosen according to the following criteria: existing relations with the CR, necessity of the development cooperation, preparedness of the country to accept aid and co-ordination with other donors.

From 2001 to 2006, the Czech ODA increased from 1 billion CZK to 3.6 billion CZK, i.e. an increase of the ODA as a percentage of the GNP from 0.047% to 0.12%. In 2007, the ODA decreased to 0.11% of GNP in comparison with 0.12% of GNP in 2006. In comparison with the other Visegrád (V4) countries, the Czech Republic has the highest ODA levels as a percentage of its GNP.

Before 1989, the Czech ODA was mostly politically motivated and influenced by the world’s bipolar partition. Since the Czech Republic joined the OECD in 1995, a modern era of Czech development cooperation has been initiated. By the year 2002, fragmentation, incoherence and a lack of transparency were characteristic of the Czech ODA. The initial step for a transformation of the Czech ODA system was the Conception of the Czech official development cooperation for 2002-2007.