OECD: Estonia contributes 0.28% of GNI to humanitarian aid and development cooperation

Estonia's ODA, which includes the entire public sector's foreign cooperation activities with partner countries, reached 101 million euros in 2023, making up 0.28% of Estonia’s gross national income (GNI). 

"Development cooperation and humanitarian aid are important foreign policy tools for Estonia, through which we respond to global crises and support our partner countries’ socio-economic development, thereby ensuring a more democratic and prosperous external environment whereby Estonia is also safer," said Margus Tsahkna, the minister of Foreign Affairs. "As a member of the European Union, Estonia has set a goal to increase our ODA to 0.33% of the gross national income by 2030. Long-term support for Ukraine, EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood and African partner countries is an important prerequisite to achieving this goal."

Estonia’s 2023 ODA decreased by nearly 51.4% compared to 2022. However, OECD rules state that domestic spending on refugee support can only be included in ODA reporting for the first twelve months.

When excluding domestic expenditure for Ukrainian refugees, ODA reached 70 million euros in 2023, 0.19% of the gross national income. Even without including spending on refugee support, Estonia’s ODA has increased significantly compared to the period before the war in Ukraine when ODA plateaued at 0.16% of the GNI.

Estonia's priority continues to be supporting Ukraine. In 2023, 9.6 million euros were allocated for bilateral development cooperation and humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

The EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood priority countries—Moldova, Georgia, and Armenia—were supported with 1.8 million euros and African priority countries—Botswana, Kenya, Namibia and Uganda—with 1.3 million euros. Estonia’s ODA to sub-Saharan Africa increased to 2 million euros in 2023. Total humanitarian aid increased by almost half a million, to 4.5 million euros, while allocations to international organisations—the European Union, the World Bank Group, and the United Nations—comprised 45% of Estonia’s total ODA.

Total global ODA reached an all-time high of $223.7 billion in 2023, up 1.8% in real terms from 2022.