Emerging donors — and where they spend their aid

In the past few years, the world has faced a number of unprecedented crises that further highlight the importance of international cooperation. But despite the increasing need for foreign assistance, some of the largest bilateral donors are reducing their aid budgets. For so long, development aid has come from a few wealthy countries, most of which are part of the Development Assistance Committee. But since the late 20th century, several countries have successfully transformed themselves from being aid recipients to donors. These are referred to as emerging donors. Many among them have steered away from the conventional method of cooperation — from the way they select recipients to the different mechanisms used to support development, economic, and humanitarian activities. In this analysis, we turned our attention to some of these leading emerging donors, namely Brazil, China, India, Kuwait, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Of these, only Poland is currently a member of the DAC. We looked into official reports from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and from these donors’ lead aid agencies to map out their spending trends and priorities. This provides a brief overview of a longer emerging donors report that Devex will be publishing in the coming weeks. Unless otherwise stated, all figures are converted using 2022 U.S. dollar constant prices. How much do these emerging donors spend on development? Based on data from OECD, Kuwait, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the UAE spent $19.7 billion of aid in 2022. India, which does not report to OECD, recorded a total of $860 million in technical and economic cooperation, or TEC, in 2022. This includes disbursements channeled through its Export-Import Bank. The rest of the donors have figures up to 2021. Brazil, which mostly provides assistance through global south-south cooperation, spent nearly $1.4 billion, while China’s official development assistance-like commitments — which also included commitments through its Export-Import Bank — amounted to $4.4 billion. Overall, this suggests a combined aid budget of between $20 billion to $30 billion annually among these donors. In depth: How much aid is given — and where is it going? Brazil. The country’s foreign policy is guided by global south-south cooperation, with the Brazilian Cooperation Agency acting as the lead aid agency. In 2021, Brazil spent $1.3 billion on over 8,000 projects — a significant increase from the $358.5 million spent in the previous year. Of the total, $444.2 million was channeled through multilateral agencies. Among countries, Argentina was the biggest recipient of support from Brazil in 2021, with $45.4 million. Then Venezuela, with $22.7 million; Ecuador, with $8.6 million; Mozambique, with $5.4 million; and Lebanon, with $4.3 million. Education, health, peace and justice, and partnerships were the priority sectors. China. Based on our analysis of the latest report from AidData, China’s total ODA-like commitment was worth $4.4 billion in 2021. AidData, a partnership of the College of William & Mary, Development Gateway, and Brigham Young University, is one of the organizations that provide a comprehensive coverage of Chinese aid. China’s top recipient countries in 2021 were Sri Lanka, with $660 million; Tajikistan, with $201.9 million; and Myanmar, with $179 million. Health was the priority sector in 2021, receiving $2.6 billion. Other focus areas included general budget support, transportation, and communications. China’s aid is mainly funded through its Belt and Road initiative. The majority of its development activities are carried out by the China International Development Cooperation Agency. India. Initially limited to global south-south cooperation, India’s development cooperation has expanded both in terms of financial mechanisms and regional and sectoral priorities. Based on the latest annual report of the Ministry of External Affairs, India’s budget for technical and economic cooperation amounted to 67.5 billion Indian rupees ($860 million in 2022 prices) in the fiscal year 2022-23. Of that, 60.4 billion Indian rupees ($770 million) is allocated via grants and 7.1 billion Indian rupees ($90 million) via loans. The report also shows that Bhutan was the biggest recipient country, with 22.7 billion Indian rupees ($288.7 million) — 33.6% of the total TEC in FY 2022-23. Other top recipients include Mauritius, with 9 billion Indian rupees ($114.7 million); Nepal, with 7.5 billion Indian rupees ($95.6 million); and Myanmar, with 6 billion Indian rupees ($76.4 million). Kuwait. The country’s development cooperation is carried out by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development — the first institution set up in the Middle East for such a purpose. Based on OECD, the agency has disbursed $19 billion to 107 countries so far. However, Kuwait’s aid spending has significantly declined in the last five years — from $873 million in 2018 to just $264 million in 2022. It has not submitted its preliminary figures for 2023. Egypt was the biggest recipient of funding from Kuwait in 2022, with $75.5 million, then Jordan with almost $25 million. Kuwait focused on only two sectors in 2022: education, and transport and storage, allocating $37.4 million and $82 million, respectively. Poland is one of the most promising among the emerging donors, with its aid steadily increasing between 2018 and 2021 — from $776 million to $939 million. Its official development assistance, or ODA, skyrocketed further in 2022, to $3.5 billion, due to the cost of hosting refugees from the war in Ukraine. ODA is disbursed through multiple streams, primarily through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — which manages the bulk of bilateral aid and EU cooperation through its Department of Development Co-operation — and the Ministry of Finance — which mainly provides concessional loans. Other agencies and government institutions are also involved in development activities. The bulk of Poland’s development aid goes to European partners, who received $403 million in 2022 — 15.1% of its total bilateral ODA that year. Europe was the top recipient in the five-year period. Of the aid to the region, $317.6 million went to Ukraine. Other top recipients were Belarus, with $48.4 million; Moldova, with $26.3 million; and Turkey, with $8.7 million. Education was the priority sector in 2022, with $130.8 million. The government and civil society sector ranked second, with $39 million; then communications, with $22.2 million; health, with $16 million; and transportation and storage, with $8 million. Qatar. Several government agencies are involved in the disbursement of Qatar’s development aid. Based on OECD data, more than 80% of the country’s ODA in 2021 was disbursed through the Qatar Fund for Development. The rest was channeled through other agencies, including the Qatar Foundation and state-owned air carrier Qatar Airways. The biggest portion of bilateral aid in 2022, worth $386 million, went to the Palestinian territories. Yemen ranked next, with $52.4 million; Lebanon, with $36.9 million; and Somalia, with $27 million. Among sectors, education was the priority, with $147.9 million in 2022. Then the government and civil society sector, with $36.2 million; health, with $29.6 million; transportation, with $14.8 million; and other social infrastructure and services, with $8.6 million. Saudi Arabia’s aid spending was on the decline prior to the pandemic, reaching $1.9 billion in 2020, from $4.6 billion in 2018. But the donor increased its aid spending massively in 2021, to $7 billion, followed by $6.6 billion the next year. Its ODA-to-GNI ratio in 2021 reached 1.01% — a feat that’s rare even for most DAC member countries. A significant amount of Saudi Arabia’s ODA in 2022, worth $5 billion, was given to the African region, though it wasn’t reported who among the countries received the biggest portion. Next was Asia, receiving $686.3 million, and then “unspecified developing countries” with $282 million. Saudi Arabia prioritized health, education, and humanitarian aid in 2022. Health-related projects received almost $268 million, while the education sector received $168.7 million. The Saudi Fund for Development and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, or KSRelief, are the primary agencies handling Saudi Arabia’s international cooperation. Turkey is among the largest emerging donors, spending as much as $8.7 billion ODA at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Its aid from 2018 to 2021 remained above $8 billion. Then it dropped to $7.1 billion in 2022. Preliminary data for 2023 suggests a further decline, at $5.9 billion. Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency, or TIKA, is Turkey’s primary aid agency and has implemented over 200 projects in the past 20 years. Based on OECD, Syria received the most Turkish aid in 2022, with $4.7 billion. Then Somalia, with $26.2 million; Kazakhstan, with $23.6 million; and the Palestinian territories, with $22.1 million. By sector, humanitarian aid was the priority, receiving $5.3 billion. This is attributed to its spending on hosting refugees from the war in Syria. Among sectors, $226.8 million went to education, $59.9 million to water supply and sanitation, and $50.7 million to other social infrastructure and services. United Arab Emirates. The UAE’s official development assistance has experienced a significant decline over the past five years. ODA peaked at $4 billion in 2018, then dropped to $1.4 billion in 2022. OECD’s preliminary data for 2023 suggests that the UAE’s ODA has increased to $1.8 billion. Yemen was the biggest recipient of aid in 2022, with $386.6 million. Jordan ranked next, with $384.8 million; then Ethiopia, with $174.5 million; and Sudan, with $89.5 million. The bulk of its aid in 2022 was multisectoral, worth $357 million. Among aid that targeted a specific area, the industry, mining and construction sector was the top recipient, with $191.2 million. Then transport and storage, with $112.8 million; energy, with $110.6 million; and health, with $25 million. The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development — which operates autonomously from the government — manages grant financing for and on behalf of the UAE. It provides financial assistance in many forms such as concessionary loans, grants, and equity investments. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free five-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.