Which countries donate the most to foreign aid

 International development aid is given by many non-private donors. The first table is based on official development assistance (ODA) figures published by the OECD for members of its Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Non-DAC members included in the OECD's publishing are listed separately.

Luxembourg made the largest contribution as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) at 1.05% and the United Nations’ ODA target of 0.7% of GNI was also exceeded by Norway (1.02%), Sweden (0.99%) and Denmark (0.71%).[1] The European Union accumulated a higher portion of GDP as a form of foreign aid than any other economic union.[2]

The United States is a small contributor relative to GNI (0.18% 2016[3]) but is the largest single DAC donor of ODA in 2019 (US$34.6 billion), followed by Germany (0.6% GNI, US$23.8 billion), the United Kingdom (0.7%, US$19.4 billion), Japan (0.2%, US$15.5 billion) and France (0.4%, US$12.2 billion). Many providers beyond the DAC have long traditions of development cooperation. Amongst these, according to the preliminary figures for 2019 reported to the OECD, Turkey exceeded the 0.7% ODA/GNI target with 1.15%.

Which Countries Provide and Receive the Most Foreign Aid?

What is foreign aid? The most basic foreign aid definition states that it is “resources given from one country to another.” These resources include money, materials, and manpower that are donated to developing countries around the world. Foreign aid is offered to help with emergency preparedness, disaster relief, economic development, and poverty reduction. The Development Assistance Committee, made up of 30 major donors, was created to oversee and discuss issues surrounding foreign aid; specifically focusing on humanitarian aid and economic development. The chart below ranks these 30 donors by how much foreign aid assistance they gave in 2017 and shows the top ten developing countries that were on the receiving end of their aid.

The Development Assistance Committee, made up of 30 major donors, was created to oversee and discuss issues surrounding foreign aid; specifically focusing on humanitarian aid and economic development. The chart below ranks these 30 donors by how much foreign aid assistance they gave in 2017 and shows the top ten developing countries that were on the receiving end of their aid.

Here is an excerpt from the Development Assistance Committee Mandate:

"The overarching objective of the DAC for the period 2018-2022 is to promote development co-operation and other relevant policies so as to contribute to implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, poverty eradication, improvement of living standards in developing countries, and to a future in which no country will depend on aid."

What Country Gives the Most Aid?

The United States is the top donor country on the Developmental Assistance Committee (DAC), contributing almost $35 billion to foreign aid in 2017. This donation amounted to 0.18% of the country’s Gross National Income (GNI), far below the official development assistance target of 0.70% GNI.

Out of the 30 major donor countries that make up the DAC, only five of them met the 0.70% target in 2017. These five countries were Sweden with 1.02%, Luxembourg with 1.00%, Norway with 0.99%, Denmark with 0.74%, and the United Kingdom with 0.70%. Germany slipped just under the threshold with 0.67% of their GNI donated.

What Country Receives the Most Aid?

The country that received the most foreign aid is India, which got more than $4.2 billion in aid from the DAC members in 2017. Turkey was a close second with $4.1 billion in aid received.

The total amount of aid donated in 2017 by the 30 DAC members to developing countries reached a high of $163.6 billion.

Despite its strong association with the federal budget, foreign aid isn’t just money. It’s anything that one country donates or provides for the benefit of another country. This can be money. However, foreign aid can also include goods, such as food or technical support. Most of US foreign aid funds go through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a semi-independent agency that manages the lion’s share of America’s development and humanitarian aid. 

We’ve previously explained foreign aid, and covered some popular foreign aid myths and facts. Now, let’s take a look at who receives the most foreign aid, and how the US is contributing to much-needed development and humanitarian activities around the world. Broadly speaking, the US government classifies foreign as one of two categories: military aid and economic aid. (Military aid includes funding for counterterrorism and counternarcotics initiatives, conflict mitigation, and security sector reform.) We’ll be following this same classification in our reporting below.

FOREIGN AID BY COUNTRY: HOW MUCH DOES THE US SPEND? AND WHO’S GETTING THE MOST?

There is always a lag time for reporting accurate numbers. For 2021, we’ll be using 2020 allocation numbers. It’s not unusual for some of these allocations differ from the eventual disbursements. In this year, the United States planned to spend $43 billion in foreign aid (it allocated the same amount for 2019, and ultimately spent $45 billion). Almost a quarter of that budget would go to just ten countries:

• Israel ($3.3 billion)
• Jordan ($1.52 billion)
• Egypt ($1.43 billion)
• Tanzania ($547 million)
• Kenya ($544 million)
• Uganda ($533 million)
• Mozambique ($522 million)
• South Africa ($482 million)
• Zambia ($457 million)
• Iraq ($454 million) 

It’s also worth noting the breakdown between economic and military spending in these countries: Of the nearly $4.5 billion foreign aid dollars allocated to the top 10 countries, 54% of it ($5.28 billion) was designated as military funds. That’s over 78% of overall US foreign military aid ($6.7 billion) in 2020. 

WHAT ARE THE COUNTRIES RECEIVING FOREIGN AID DOING WITH THE MONEY?

What countries do with their foreign assistance from the United States depends on what the aid is earmarked for.

In countries like Iraq, for example, 55% of its $454 million in aid for 2020 was designated for military assistance according to USAID. This can include a broad range of programming, from counter-terror operations to strengthening legal and judicial systems. 

On the other end of the spectrum, Kenya was set to receive almost exclusively humanitarian assistance funding in 2020 (less than 0.18% of its funding was earmarked for military assistance). As in previous years, the majority of economic aid was designated for emergency response, along with developmental food aid and food security assistance, and maternal and child health. 

WHERE DOES CONCERN FIT IN ALL THIS?

Concern Worldwide’s funding comes from a variety of sources, including the US government. The difference American foreign aid makes to the people that we work with cannot be overstated. In 2019, received more than $41 million from the US Government in 2019 to support 26 programs in more than a dozen countries. In 2019, our US government-funded programs reached nearly 10 million people.

Continuous funding from USAID between 2008 and 2019 fueled Concern’s Child Survival projects, which reached over 1.9 million women, children, community volunteers, and health workers in seven countries. This work was part of the largest USAID-NGO partnership for health, and the second-largest overall USAID-NGO partnership in the organization’s history. 

USAID was also a key funder for Community Management of Acute Malnutrition, a pilot program that Concern co-developed 20 years ago that has now recognized by World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme as a best practice in child nutrition.

Another key Concern project, the National NGO Program on Humanitarian Leadership (NNPHL) was made possible in part by foreign aid, which in turn has trained dynamic and relevant training opportunities that help learners build their skills, knowledge, and confidence to take on leadership responsibilities in humanitarian organizations in order to improve the delivery of services to those in need of humanitarian assistance. Since the program began in 2019, NNPHL has received more than 4,000 applications and trained 243 humanitarians from 51 countries.