The largest donors in 2024 — and how they spent their aid

The global development community endured another year marked by crises, emergencies, and ongoing wars. Unfortunately, the outlook for next year is bleak — if not worse — as conservative governments in wealthy countries, many of which are also among the largest sources of foreign aid, take hold of power and economic nationalism grows among the public. With the increasing pressure on donors to spend more on development projects and humanitarian response, we asked: What have the largest donors done this year? In this year-end report, we looked into official reports, press releases, and data — mainly from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Donor Tracker, and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Financial Tracking Service, or FTS — to see trends in priorities in 2024 among the world’s leading bilateral and multilateral donors. The FTS data gets updated regularly, which may explain differences with our figures. All figures are in their current prices and were reported in their original currencies. Bilateral donors France OECD preliminary data shows that French aid was worth $15.4 billion in 2023, or about 0.5% of its gross national income, or GNI. This represents a sudden dip in absolute spending after years of steady increase. Under France’s 2021 Development Law, official development assistance was required to rise to 0.7% of GNI by 2025. The goal was extended to 2030. The drafted budget for 2025 shows alarming cuts to funding for what France calls the ODA mission funds — the core of its aid budget. This was worth €1.3 billion ($1.35 billion in latest rates), or 23.3%, less than in 2024. The decline in aid comes after a time of substantial French foreign aid growth, especially during Donald Trump’s first term as U.S. president when other bilateral players needed to step in. A report from Focus 2030 noted that France's ODA has increased by 36% since 2017. The country made a number of large commitments in 2024, including: • A €100 million pledge to the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, or AVMA, a financial instrument spearheaded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which aims to generate $1.2 billion in funding to support the expansion of vaccine manufacturing in Africa. • A new education strategy for 2024 to 2028, which includes a €350 million annual contribution to support the education sector in Francophone countries in Africa. • A €300 million climate policy loan to Bangladesh from the French Development Agency, or AFD. • $50 million to support climate adaptation activities in the Caribbean. • €50 million to support women entrepreneurs in Nigeria. France's total humanitarian funding amounted to $606.2 million in 2024. Of this, $91.3 million went to Ukraine. The other top recipients of humanitarian assistance from France were Lebanon, with $74.4 million; the occupied Palestinian territories with $59.8 million; Sudan, with $32.5 million; Burkina Faso, with $22.4 million, and Chad, with $19.5 million. Germany German aid saw an upward trend beginning in 2019, but the preliminary data shows a decline coming, both in monetary terms and relative to the country’s national income. Despite this, the country remains the second largest bilateral donor after the United States, with $36.7 billion ODA in 2023 — 5.8% less than the previous year. This accounted for 0.79% of Germany’s GNI — well above the 0.7% target — and places the country just behind Norway, Luxembourg, and Sweden among the top bilateral donors in terms of ODA-to-GNI ratio. However, the outlook for next year is unpromising. In July, the government approved the draft budget 2025, with a 2% overall cut versus the 2024 budget. This included a €937 million dip in the budget of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, or BMZ, and a €1.04 billion cutback in humanitarian aid allocation, which is managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The bulk of German aid is managed by BMZ, which spent a total of €11.2 billion in 2024 — of which €5.2 billion was spent bilaterally. Two agencies primarily implement Germany’s development projects: KfW and ​​Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, or GIZ. Among Germany’s largest projects in 2024 were: • €1.2 billion to support Indonesia’s green energy transition. • €340 million for the second phase of the Bangalore Metro Rail Project in India. • €78.8 million to support the water supply, renewable energy, and financial sectors in Tunisia. • €65 million to assist in the reconstruction of the energy infrastructure in Ukraine. Germany also ranked third among the largest sources of humanitarian aid in 2024 after the U.S. and the European Union, with a total funding of $2.3 billion. Its primary recipients were Ukraine, with $398.3 million; the occupied Palestinian territories, with $227.9 million; Syria, with $178.8 million; Afghanistan, with $108.3 million; and Sudan, with $91.3 million. A further $350.4 million was spent on global humanitarian response. Japan Japan is the largest Asian donor, with $19.6 billion of aid, which is 0.44% of its GNI. OECD data shows that both the country’s absolute-term aid and ODA-to-GNI ratio have been increasing in the past decade, especially in the last four years — all while the country battles an increasing inflation rate and struggling economy. According to Japanese officials, the reason lies in how Japan approaches aid. It primarily uses concessional lending, which protected and even increased its overall ODA despite the Japanese yen’s declining value since it also means lower interest rates. In a correspondence with Devex, Akihiko Tanaka, president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, said that had the country exclusively used grants, the aid budget would have also dipped. Donor Tracker estimates that Japan’s ODA will increase further by 5% in 2024. Some of its largest commitments and projects in 2024 were: • A 52.4 billion Japanese yen ($335.4 million in latest rates) budget for global health initiatives. This includes a ¥22.1 billion contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and a ¥7.7 billion Japanese yen contribution to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI. • Up to ¥51.7 billion loan agreement with the African Development Fund. • A new strategy for climate change measures in agricultural and rural development cooperation. • A ¥232.2 billion loan to India for nine projects, including the construction of various roads, promoting horticulture, and improving water supply. • A ¥60 billion loan to Turkey for the Emergency Earthquake Disaster Reconstruction Project. FTS data shows that Japan allocated $1.1 billion for humanitarian response in 2024, of which $440 million went to global activities. Ukraine was the top recipient country, with $118.6 million. The occupied Palestinian territories ranked next, with $70.9 million; Afghanistan, with $53.8 million; Syria, with $49.7 million; Myanmar, with $27.4 million; and Lebanon, with $20.9 million. United Kingdom Preliminary data shows that the U.K. spent $19.1 billion in 2023, or about 0.58% of its GNI. While still far from the 0.7% target, it is still a slight improvement from the 0.50% and 0.51% allocations in 2021 and 2022. Some of the U.K.’s commitments and initiatives in 2024 were: • Nearly £1.98 billion ($2.5 billion in latest rates) contribution to the International Development Association, or IDA, over a three-year period. • £600 million support to Ukraine, of which £242 million is for humanitarian response. • Resumption of funding to UNRWA, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees, with £15 million budgetary support and £6 million for the agency’s flash appeal for Gaza. The U.K. was among the 16 countries that decided to defund UNRWA following the October attack in Israel. • A £100 million pledge to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the next decade in the form of hybrid capital — a form of loan with no maturity date that would benefit low-income countries with no access to affordable financing. • Several commitments during the COP29 U.N. climate summit, including a £220 million contribution to the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific, or IF-CAP, and a £100 million funding to the British International Investment, or BII, to support the transition toward net zero of other countries. The country also spent a significant sum on humanitarian response, amounting to $1.8 billion in 2024. Its primary recipients include Afghanistan, with $198.9 million; Ethiopia, with $155.7 million; Syria, with $148.5 million; Yemen, with $130 million; and Sudan, with $128.8 million. The country also allocated $210.7 million for global humanitarian response. Once a development aid powerhouse, the U.K. has seen a series of cuts brought by the government’s decision to reduce aid due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. A report published in September warns about yet another potential slash, in which ODA could fall to just 0.36% of the U.K.’s GNI — the lowest in 17 years. The following month, the Labour government’s first budget revealed its decision not to return to the 0.7% mark until at least 2030, making aid budget cuts in the coming years highly likely. In October, FCDO published its latest commercial pipeline, with a budget of £2 billion. Devex analysis shows that more than half of this, worth £1.1 billion, is earmarked for development-related contracts. United States Many anticipate a drastic change in U.S. foreign policy, following the reelection of Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s majority win in both Chambers of Congress. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. has retained its spot as the largest provider of development aid among bilateral donors, with $66 billion ODA in 2023. However, this only represents 0.24% of its GNI — way below the 0.7% ODA-to-GNI ratio and DAC’s average of 0.37%. The U.S. is also the top donor to humanitarian aid. According to USAID, the agency has responded to 84 humanitarian crises in 64 countries in 2024. Based on FTS data, the U.S. allocated nearly $14 billion for humanitarian response — more than 40% of the $31.6 billion overall humanitarian aid UNOCHA tracked from official donors in 2024. Among countries, the largest allocation went to the Democratic of Congo, worth $965.7 million. Then Sudan, with $823.8 million; the occupied Palestinian territories, with $819.8 million; Yemen, with $750.6 million; Ukraine, with $710.7 million; and South Sudan, with $666.2 million. A further $1.1 billion went to global humanitarian efforts. This year also marks USAID Administrator Samatha Power’s final attempt at reaching the goal of channeling a quarter of the agency’s funds through local organizations. However, data shows that with only a year left, USAID is not even halfway to its target. Only 9.6% of eligible funding went to local recipients in FY 2023 — down from 10.2% in the previous year. Despite the setback, USAID has made significant contributions in different sectors and priorities in 2024. According to a recent analysis from Publish What You Fund, an organization that campaigns for aid transparency: “USAID is the only agency that has set an ambitious target and a clear way to measure it.” Some of USAID’s initiatives and projects in 2024 were: • A $20 billion loan agreement with Ukraine, signed in early December, which is part of the G7’s $50 billion commitment to help the country. • $4 billion three-year pledge to IDA made by President Joe Biden during the G20 summit in Brazil. • Several large commitments during COP29 in early November, including a $53.7 million blended finance and an $11.8 million climate adaptation program. • Two global strategies were announced in April: the Strategy on International Basic Education for 2024 to 2029 and the 2024 Global Health Security Strategy. Multilateral development banks Asian Development Bank ADB is a leading lender among low- and middle-income countries in the Asia and the Pacific region. In its Strategy 2030 midterm review, the bank has identified five key areas where focus is needed: climate action; private sector development; regional cooperation and public goods; digital transformation; and resilience and empowerment. Based on its latest annual report, ADB committed $23.6 billion in 2023. Of this, $8.8 billion went to South Asia; $7.9 billion to Southeast Asia; $4.3 billion to Central and West Asia; and $2.1 billion to East Asia. ADB supports development through grants, loans, equity investments, and technical assistance. Currently, it has 61 proposed projects, 156 approved projects, and 243 projects in implementation in 2024. Among its biggest ongoing projects in 2024 were: • $2.3 billion for the first tranche of the Lakeshore Road Network Project in Laguna, Philippines. ADB will provide about $1.2 billion of the budget, while $904.4 million will come from the Export-Import Bank of Korea and $188.2 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB. • A total of $778.3 million — composed of a $500 million loan from ADB and $278.3 million from AFD — to support the implementation of national climate policies and commitments in the Philippines. • $700 million for the Chattogram-Dohazari Railway Project in Bangladesh. The project will upgrade 41 kilometers (about 26 miles) of existing rails and construct a new 2.5-kilometer (1.55 miles) bypass line. • $500 million to support Pakistan’s resilience to climate and disaster by strengthening institutional capacity and increasing investment and financing for climate and disaster risk reduction. • $434.3 million to construct a 500-megawatt grid-connected solar photovoltaic facility in Assam, India. African Development Bank AfDB has arguably been one of the most important financial institutions in the African region. Since its inception 60 years ago, the bank has approved over 6,500 projects in a range of sectors — from agriculture, employment, food security, to water supply and sanitation. In May, AfDB published its 10-year strategy for 2024 to 2033, taking into account the necessary actions needed to support African countries as they navigate multiple crises and emergencies — both natural and human-made. The bank identified two overarching goals: to promote green growth and create resilient economies. AfDB's project approval totaled $10.76 billion in 2023, its second-highest figure next to the $10.8 billion allocation in 2009, which was in response to the global financial crisis. Its financing is reported in UA, or units of account, similar to the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights, or SDR. Based on its portal, the bank currently has 252 approved projects and 1,005 ongoing projects. Among the biggest development projects were: • 123.9 million UA ($162.8 million in the latest rates) to promote fiscal management and transparency, increase private sector participation in the agriculture sector, and support climate resilience in Angola. • 84.3 million UA to improve the water supply systems in Morocco. • 59.1 million UA to support entrepreneurship that would generate employment for the young people and women in Senegal. • 57.1 million UA to improve cardiovascular health outcomes in Tanzania by establishing a cardiac teaching hospital for the training of the medical workforce. • 40.1 million for the development of the Abu Rawash wastewater treatment plant in Egypt. European Union In February, the European Council announced a revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework, or MFF, providing an additional €64.6 billion to cover a number of priorities. This includes €50 billion for Ukraine and €2 billion for migration and border management. However, the additional funding is not entirely new. About €10.6 billion will come from existing funding, which includes a €2 billion reduction in the development budget. A few months later, Devex reported how the redirection of the budget would affect the world’s lowest-income countries, with an average budget cut of up to 35% for the least-developed countries, 37% for low- and middle-income countries, and 40% for upper-middle-income countries. The MFF covers the EU’s overall budget, including development aid, which is funded under the Global Europe: Neighbourhood, Development, and International Cooperation Instrument, or NDICI-Global Europe. The Directorate-General for International Partnerships, or INTPA — one of the EU's leading agencies for development and humanitarian activities — manages NDICI-Global Europe. It also sets EU’s development priorities and objectives. Some of INTPA’s largest projects in 2024 were: • €300 million to improve the health system in South Sudan, with a focus on children, pregnant women, and vulnerable groups. • €146 million to improve basic services and livelihoods in Afghanistan. • €100 million to support investment in renewable energy, address migration, and improve health care in Mauritania. • €85 million for the Eastern Backbone Power Transmission Project, which aims to improve access to affordable energy in Malawi. • €64 million to support agriculture — primarily the horticulture and coffee value chains — and renewable energy in Ethiopia. Preliminary data from OECD shows that EU Institutions spent $26.9 billion in 2023, maintaining the EU’s rank as the third largest official provider of ODA. The FTS data shows that the EU’s total humanitarian funding in 2024 amounted to $2.6 billion. Among the recipients, the occupied Palestinian territories received the largest share, worth $203.2 million. Ukraine ranked next, with $197.3 million; Afghanistan, with $191.2 million; Sudan, with $182.6 million; Lebanon, with $166.7 million, and Syria, with $158.8 million. Inter-American Development Bank IDB is the premier development bank providing financial and technical assistance to 26 borrowing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Based on its latest annual report published in March, IDB’s total approval in 2023 stood at $24.3 billion. This included $12.7 billion for 92 approved sovereign loans, of which $7.8 billion is for investment projects and $4.9 billion for policy-based projects. On the other hand, its disbursement for sovereign loans amounted to $10.7 billion, which is the same as the previous year. IDB has funded thousands of projects since its establishment in 1959, with a total active portfolio of $58.9 billion for 638 projects. Among countries, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia have the most number of projects, while state modernization, water and sanitation, social investment, transportation, and energy were the priority sectors. Among IDB’s biggest projects in 2024 were: • $600 million for a program to reduce the economic vulnerability of older adults in Mexico. • $1 billion — $500 million each from IDB and the World Bank — to support an affordable public bus transport system in Argentina. • $500 million to strengthen financial sustainability and the money market in Ecuador. • $250 million to improve Bolivia’s resilience to natural disasters and health emergencies. • $187.5 million to improve access to health services in Bahia, Brazil. World Bank Based on its latest annual report, the World Bank committed $117.5 billion in the fiscal year 2024. Africa remains its biggest recipient region, with $38 billion. Then Europe and Central Asia, with $24.7 billion; Latin America and the Caribbean, with $19.4 billion; South Asia, with $15.9 billion; East Asia and Pacific, with $12.5 billion; and the Middle East and North Africa, with $6.5 billion. Another $400 million went to global projects. Meanwhile, its disbursement totaled $89 billion, with $33.5 billion channeled through the IBRD and another $28.2 billion via IDA. The remainder was disbursed by the International Finance Corporation, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, and various trust funds. Established in 1944, the World Bank Group remains one of the largest sources of development financing among low- and middle-income countries, providing loans and grants to fund thousands of projects across a range of sectors and priorities. Among its largest projects in 2024 were: • $1.3 billion to improve transport systems resilience in Kazakhstan. • $1.1 billion to support sustainable forest management, value chains, and livelihoods in the Congo Basin. • $400 million out of a total of $1.2 billion for the Mpatamanga Hydropower Project, which aims to improve hydropower generation capacity in Malawi. • $654.9 million out of a total of $1 billion to support green transition and provide long-term financing for the expansion of exporters in Turkey. • $750 million for the Digital Transformation Development Policy Loans Project in the Philippines.