What did donors spend on multilateral aid in 2024?
With roughly $91 billion in official development assistance, the multilateral system plays a crucial role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.
The multilateral system plays a dual role in the development sectors. Some organizations, such as the World Bank Group, provide funding, while others, mainly the United Nations agencies, carry out development and humanitarian work. While their purpose varies, most multilaterals largely rely on funding from the Development Assistance Committee member countries. In this analysis, we crunched the latest data on multilateral aid from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to provide a breakdown of exactly how the DAC member countries funded the multilateral system in 2024. These numbers provide a picture of a world just before it was upended by radical funding changes introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump at the start of his second term in early 2025. Note that the figures here may differ slightly from other ODA-related analyses we have published. This is due to the reporting method for multilateral ODA, which uses gross disbursements instead of the grant equivalent used in most datasets. Finally, all figures are in 2024 U.S. dollar prices. How is the multilateral system funded? Official development assistance, or ODA, is disbursed either as bilateral or multilateral aid, depending on how the money flows to the recipients. With bilateral aid, the donors disburse funds directly to recipient countries through implementing partners, such as government agencies or nonprofit organizations. Meanwhile, multilateral aid is given as core contributions, which are pooled together and spent at the recipient institution’s discretion. A portion of bilateral aid also gets channeled through multilaterals when donors ask them to implement programs on their behalf. This is called bi-multi aid or contributions through multilaterals. Bi-multi aid is still considered as bilateral aid since it is earmarked for specific purposes decided by the bilateral donors. What did the bilateral donors spend on multilateral aid? In 2024, DAC donor countries channeled 41.1% of their $220.8 billion total ODA, worth $90.8 billion, through the multilateral system — $50.3 billion as core contributions and $40.6 billion as bi-multi aid. This is down $16.9 billion, or 15.7%, from the levels of the previous year. Both multilateral aid channels suffered a real-term reduction, which was mainly driven by aid cuts from two donors: the United States, which slashed its bi-multi aid by $5.5 billion; and Germany, which saw a staggering $8.2 billion cut in core contributions, more than half its disbursement in 2023. Despite this, the U.S. and Germany remained the largest backers of the multilateral system. The U.S. accounted for more than a quarter of the total multilateral aid in 2024, worth $23.2 billion — $6.5 billion in core contributions and $16.7 billion in bi-multi aid. However, as mentioned above, figures predate the historic U.S. aid cut in 2025, the impact of which we expect to see in the preliminary ODA report this April. Meanwhile, Germany’s total disbursement was worth $11.8 billion, 13% of the total — $8 billion in core contributions, the largest among the DAC donors, and $3.8 billion in bi-multi aid. The other top donors who spent the most on multilateral aid were: France, with $7.3 billion; the U.K., with $6.9 billion; Japan, with $6 billion; Canada, with $4.6 billion; and Italy, with $4.1 billion. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1771215555449' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='DAC donors' multilateral aid in 2024 ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/DA/DACdonorsmultilateralaidin2024/DACdonorsmultilateralaidin2024/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='DACdonorsmultilateralaidin2024/DACdonorsmultilateralaidin2024' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/DA/DACdonorsmultilateralaidin2024/DACdonorsmultilateralaidin2024/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='filter' value='publish=yes' /></object><param name='device' value='desktop' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1771215555449'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style=font-style: georgia;”>DAC member countries’ total multilateral aid in 2024, based on OECD.</i> Which among the multilaterals got the largest funding? The $90.8 billion multilateral ODA in 2024 was divided among international financial institutions, regional development banks, international partnerships, and funds. Among them, the following received the largest total aid, counting both core contributions and bi-multi aid in 2024: EU development share of budget Core contributions: $19,019,636,399 Bi-multi aid: $119,246,514 The development share of budget represents the contributions to the EU institutions’ development programming, funded primarily through the seven-year financing framework, Global Europe. The entire ODA came from European donors, with Germany accounting for 23.1%, worth $4.4 billion, virtually all of which is in core contributions. All the other top donors disbursed their aid as core contributions: France, with $3.4 billion; Italy, with $2.5 billion; Spain, with $2 billion; and Poland, with $952.8 million. International Development Association Core contributions: $6,508,107,430 Bi-multi aid: $132,542,490 IDA is the World Bank institution that provides grants and concessional loans to low-income countries. About a fifth of its total multilateral aid, worth nearly $1.4 billion, came from the U.S. — $1.35 billion in core contributions and $2.4 million in bi-multi aid. The other top donors were: Japan, with $869.3 million in core contributions; Germany, with $564.6 million in core contributions and $38.7 million in bi-multi aid; and the United Kingdom, with $552.5 million in core contributions and $4.3 million in bi-multi aid. World Food Programme Core contributions: $506,371,008 Bi-multi aid: $4,978,419,456 WFP is the DAC’s largest recipient of multilateral funding across the U.N. system. The humanitarian agency relies primarily on voluntary contributions from member countries. As such, its multilateral ODA in 2024 was almost entirely bi-multi aid. The U.S. was the top donor, with $2.9 billion in bi-multi aid. Germany ranked next, with $565.5 million in bi-multi aid and $60.7 million in core contributions; then the U.K., with $398.4 million in bi-multi aid and $48.4 million in core contributions, and South Korea, with $182.8 million in bi-multi aid and $20 million in core contributions. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Core contributions: $4,232,217,482 Bi-multi aid: $1,179,449 Established in 2002, the Global Fund invests over $5 billion annually to address HIV, TB, and malaria. It raises funds in three-year cycles known as replenishments, about 94% of which comes from donor countries. Among the DAC, the U.S. was its top funder in 2024, with $2.3 billion in core contributions — more than half of the total. France followed, with $449.8 million in core contributions and $440,098 in bi-multi aid, then Germany, with $434.5 million in core contributions, and Canada, with $290.5 million in core contributions. United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees Core contributions: $532,699,391 Bi-multi aid: $2,848,259,956 The UN Refugee Agency also ranked among the top multilateral aid recipients. Similar to WFP, UNHCR is also mostly funded through bi-multi aid. Its top donors were: the U.S., with almost $2 billion in bi-multi aid; Germany, with $270.1 million in bi-multi aid and $24.2 million in core contributions; France, with $136.7 million in core contributions and $158,960 in bi-multi aid; and Sweden, with $88.3 million in core contributions and $46.6 million in bi-multi aid. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1771215618941' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='Recipients of multilateral aid in 2024 ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Re/Recipientsofmultilateralaidin2024/Recipientsofmultilateralaidin2024/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='Recipientsofmultilateralaidin2024/Recipientsofmultilateralaidin2024' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Re/Recipientsofmultilateralaidin2024/Recipientsofmultilateralaidin2024/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='filter' value='publish=yes' /></object><param name='device' value='desktop' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1771215618941'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style=font-style: georgia;”>Recipients of multilateral aid in 2024, based on OECD</i> 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.
The multilateral system plays a dual role in the development sectors. Some organizations, such as the World Bank Group, provide funding, while others, mainly the United Nations agencies, carry out development and humanitarian work.
While their purpose varies, most multilaterals largely rely on funding from the Development Assistance Committee member countries.
In this analysis, we crunched the latest data on multilateral aid from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to provide a breakdown of exactly how the DAC member countries funded the multilateral system in 2024.
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Miguel Tamonan is a Senior Development Analyst at Devex, where he analyzes data from public and private donors to produce content and special reports for Pro and Pro Funding readers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a Major in International Relations from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
