9 emerging Asian donors give $20B a year. Who are they?

Historically, development funding has been perceived as the preserve of a relatively small number of donors, such as the G-7 countries. But increasingly, national donors are emerging outside that group. One of the main areas for growth is in Asia, where a number of countries are making significant contributions to development funding. Other than Japan, the only Asian G-7 member, nine Asian countries have provided information on their official development assistance spending to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Between them, they contributed around 12% of all national official development assistance in 2019. We looked to find out who they are. Where are the emerging donors in Asia? The nine Asian donors on the OECD list include: • One far eastern country, South Korea, which is also the only member of OECD Development Assistance Committee. • Five Middle Eastern countries — Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. • Three Eurasian countries — Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. These countries spent $19.5 billion between them in 2019. South Korea, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia reported an increase in spending compared to 2018. Azerbaijan and Qatar had no data available. The other four countries saw a decline. The majority of this amount — $16.8 billion — was disbursed bilaterally. The remaining $2.7 billion was channeled through multilateral organizations. Across all donors, the overall top recipients were U.N. agencies such as UNICEF, the World Food Programme, and World Health Organization. Turkey was the leading country among the emerging donors with $8.8 billion — 1.15% of its gross national income. This is higher than the 0.7% ODA to GNI ratio target set by the United Nations, and the highest proportion in 2019 among all the donor countries being tracked by the OECD. However, a report published by Development Initiatives shows that Turkey’s development assistance also included humanitarian aid spending on hosting Syrian refugees, so this figure may not be directly comparable to other countries. The other large donors include Saudi Arabia with $4.5 billion, South Korea with $2.7 billion, and the United Arab Emirates with $2.3 billion. All the emerging donors, except Turkey, had development spending in 2019 that was less than 0.7% of their GNI. These donors also disbursed aid for COVID-19 response. South Korea spent $586 million, while the other donors' aid ranged from humanitarian aid, financial assistance, to the delivery of medical supplies. Where did the money go? Disbursements were concentrated into three regions: • ODA-eligible European countries such as Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Ukraine. • The Middle East. • The rest of Asia. In terms of priority, while the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serves as an overarching theme among these donors, their sectoral priorities reflect their individual development policies. For instance, Azerbaijan prioritizes global peace and security; South Korea focuses on health, green infrastructure, and science and technology; while Saudi Arabia’s spending is in line with its Vision 2030 strategy, whose goals include increasing its economic and investment activities. Below are the donors’ largest contributions to countries and sectors: Azerbaijan • $2 million to Kyrgyzstan, and $600,000 each to Iraq and Albania. • $3 million to education, and $1 million to government and civil society. The country also disbursed $1.3 million worth of humanitarian aid. Kazakhstan • Top ODA recipients include Tajikistan with $1.7 million, Afghanistan with $200,000 and Kyrgyzstan with $100,000. • Its bilateral ODA focused on social infrastructure and services, with $16 million allocated to government and civil society, $2 million to health, and $1 million to education. South Korea • Asia was its priority region, with Bangladesh and Vietnam receiving $108.5 million each and Pakistan $98.3 million. The country allocated 37.1% of its ODA to least developed countries. • South Korea heavily invested $593 million in transportation and $529.6 million in health. Other priorities include water and sanitation — at $319.9 million — and communications — at $315.9 million. The country’s humanitarian aid amounted to $115.7 million. Israel • It disbursed $40.2 million to Jordan, $27.9 million to the West Bank and Gaza, and $24.4 million to India. The country spent $31.4 million to support fragile states. • Priority sectors include technologies, water, agriculture, health, and emergency response, although no actual figure is available showing how much each sector received. Turkey • It allocated $7.2 billion to Syria, although this amount may also represent spending on hosting refugees from the country. Other top recipients include Bosnia and Herzegovina with $59.8 million, and Iraq with $42.2 million. • $7.6 billion of its bilateral ODA was allocated to humanitarian assistance. Meanwhile, $429 million went to education, $79 million to government and civil society, and $40 million to health. Kuwait • Top recipient countries are neighboring countries. Egypt received $306.7 million, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip received $63.3 million, and Lebanon received $47 million. The country allocated $248.4 million in gross bilateral ODA to support fragile states. • Kuwait’s sectoral priorities include education, health, and water and sanitation — each receiving $14.3 million. Saudi Arabia • It allocated 31% of its aid spending to three countries: Yemen with $978.7 million, Sudan with $269.8 million, and Egypt with $175.6 million. Its support to fragile states amounted to $1.6 billion. • The focus was on education with $404.9 million, transportation with $245 million, and health with $244.9 million. Qatar • Priority areas include the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with $313.2 million, Somalia with $67 million, and Tunisia with $21 million. • $251.6 million went to program assistance, representing 89% of its bilateral ODA. United Arab Emirates • The country spent 38% of its total ODA on three countries: Yemen with $433.1 million, Sudan with $286.2 million, and Eritrea with $270.4 million. • UAE’s bilateral ODA mostly went to program assistance, amounting to $900 million. Its support to fragile states amounted to $1.6 billion. Janadale Leene Coralde contributed to this piece. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free 5-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850+ sources in addition to our analysis and news content.