Development Co‑operation Profiles

Azerbaijan

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Introduction

Azerbaijan is a growing provider of development co-operation, leveraging and sharing its transformation from a transition economy to an upper middle-income country. Over the past decade, Azerbaijan has significantly reduced its dependence on foreign assistance while increasing its own development co-operation with its partners. Azerbaijan provided USD 44 million of ODA in 2022, representing 0.06% of GNI.

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

The policy framework for Azerbaijan’s development co-operation is directly derived from its international commitments, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with its foreign policy priorities. The Azerbaijan International Development Agency’s (AIDA) primary purpose is to support global peace, security and prosperity. The majority of Azerbaijan’s assistance is provided bilaterally. Guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the overarching objective of Azerbaijan’s aid programme is to combat poverty, focusing on areas where Azerbaijan has a comparative advantage in sharing its expertise, such as effective public service delivery, education, healthcare, labour and social protection, youth empowerment, and humanitarian assistance.

ODA allocation overview

Azerbaijan provided USD 44 million of ODA in 2022, representing 0.06% of GNI. Total ODA on a grant-equivalent basis has the same value as net ODA under the cash-flow methodology used in the past, as Azerbaijan provides only grants.1

 

Note: Data on ODA volumes (figure above) are in constant 2022 prices. See the methodological notes for further details.

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Azerbaijan provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 80.1% of total ODA disbursements. Twenty-four per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Azerbaijan allocated 19.9% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA for Ukraine

In 2022, Azerbaijan provided USD 17.3 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s war of aggression, all of which in the form of humanitarian assistance.

 

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ODA to and through the multilateral system

In 2022, Azerbaijan provided USD 17 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system. Of this, USD 8.8 million was core multilateral ODA, while USD 8.3 million were non-core contributions earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. Project-type funding earmarked for a specific theme and/or country accounted for 3.4% of Azerbaijan’s non-core contributions and 96.6% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Ninety per cent of Azerbaijan’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to United Nations entities, World Bank and other multilateral organisations, such as various Islamic and Turkic institutions working on development issues.

 

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The UN system received 29.8% of Azerbaijan’s multilateral contributions, of which USD 1.2 million (23.8%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 5.1 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Azerbaijan’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were UN-Habitat (USD 1.5 million), UNESCO (USD 1.4 million) and UN Secretariat (USD 0.8 million).

 

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See the section on Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA for the breakdown of bilateral allocations, including ODA earmarked through the multilateral development system. Learn more about multilateral development finance.

Bilateral ODA

In 2022, Azerbaijan provided USD 35.2 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations).

In 2022, country programmable aid was 27.7% of Azerbaijan’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to a non-DAC country average of 47%.

 

Note: NGO: non-governmental organisation.

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In 2022, Azerbaijan channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through the official sector (76.1%) and, to a lesser extent, also through multilateral organisations (23.5%).

Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA

In 2022, Azerbaijan’s bilateral ODA was primarily focused on ODA-eligible countries in Europe, and Asia. USD 17.4 million was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 99.5% for Ukraine) and USD 11.7 million to Asia, accounting respectively for 49.3% and 33.3% of gross bilateral ODA. Central Asia alone received USD 9.5 million representing 27% of Azerbaijan’s bilateral ODA. USD 0.1 million was allocated to Africa. Central Asia was also the main regional recipient of Azerbaijan’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations.

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 72.5% of gross bilateral ODA went to Azerbaijan’s top 10 recipients. Ukraine was by far the largest recipient (49.1 % of gross bilateral ODA), with Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan as the two main other prominent recipients. Gross bilateral ODA to other recipients was of a much smaller size. This is in line with Azerbaijan’s focus on its immediate neighbourhood. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 27.4%.

 

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Azerbaijan allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (71.8%) to lower-middle income countries in 2022, noting that 27.4% was unallocated by income group. In 2022, Azerbaijan hardly allocated any gross bilateral ODA to LDCs (0.6%). Additionally, Azerbaijan allocated 17.4% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 6.1 million.

 

Note: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Sectors

In 2022, more than half of Azerbaijan’s bilateral ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance. Investments in this area accounted for 55.4% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 19.5 million), with a strong focus on support to emergency response (USD 17.5 million) and reconstruction relief & rehabilitation (USD 2.1 million). Most of the emergency response went to Ukraine in 2022. ODA for social infrastructure and services was also a significant sector of support for Azerbaijan, with USD 12.4 million of bilateral ODA (35.3%). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused primarily on education and other social infrastructure and services in 2022.

 

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Total official support for sustainable development

Total official support for sustainable development is an international statistical standard that monitors all official and officially supported resources for financing the SDGs in developing countries, as well as for addressing global challenges. It provides a broader measure of development finance with the objective of increasing transparency and accountability of all external support that developing countries receive.

In 2022, activities reported by Azerbaijan as TOSSD totalled USD 48 million, and Azerbaijan’s TOSSD activities in support of sustainable development mostly targeted SDG 17 “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development”, and SDG 16 “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”. Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for setting the country’s overall development co-operation policy. AIDA was established in 2011 under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide timely and co-ordinated international assistance. Project implementation is the responsibility of AIDA. In addition, the agency co-ordinates the activities of other government actors (primarily line ministries) involved in development co-operation, ensuring activities are consistent with Azerbaijan’s foreign policy objectives.

 

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Additional resources

Azerbaijan International Development Agency (AIDA) website: http://aida.mfa.gov.az/en.

Azerbaijan is a Participant in the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

Azerbaijan has been reporting to the OECD activity-level data since 2016 on 2014-15 activities.

The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including the grant-equivalent methodology, core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, country programmable aid, channels of delivery, bilateral ODA unspecified/unallocated, bilateral allocable aid, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.

Note

← 1.  Azerbaijan did not report on its ODA in 2021.