Development Co‑operation Profiles

Kuwait

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Introduction

Kuwait provides development co-operation under the broad framework of its commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) – the first fund to be established in the Arab world – primarily provides concessional loans and loans to co-finance projects, guarantees and technical assistance to support development projects with high priority to partner countries, following a demand-driven approach. Kuwait provided USD 263.8 million of official development assistance (ODA) in 2022, representing 0.16% of gross national income (GNI).1

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

Kuwait’s policy framework for development co-operation is anchored in its commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Kuwait’s activities target projects in various sectors, notably agriculture and irrigation, transport and communications, energy, industry, and water and sanitation. Over the past years, most of KFAED’s operations have been geared towards assisting partner countries in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, with a focus on eradicating poverty and ending hunger to achieve food security globally.

Since its establishment, KFAED has disbursed over USD 19 billion in assistance to 107 countries, mostly low-income and least developed countries. These activities are channelled bilaterally, although Kuwait also works with the multilateral system.

ODA allocation overview

Kuwait provided USD 263.8 million of ODA in 2022, representing 0.16% of GNI. This was a decrease of 38.4% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI compared to 0.29% in 2021. Kuwait’s ODA has shown a decreasing trend since 2018. Within Kuwait’s ODA portfolio in 2022, 8.9% was provided in the form of grants and 91.1% in the form of non-grants.2 Kuwait is not in line with its international commitment to achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio.

 

Note: Data on ODA volumes (figure above) are in constant 2022 prices. Data for 2023 are preliminary. See the methodological notes for further details.

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Performance against commitments and DAC recommendations

Description	Target	2021	2022
ODA as a share of GNI (%)		0.29	0.16
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.04	0.02
Grant element of total ODA (%)	>86	54	40

Note: This table only includes information about ODA data-related DAC recommendations. ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income; DAC: Development Assistance Committee.

Kuwait provided almost all of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 99.6% of total ODA disbursements, a further increase from 96.2% the year before. Five per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Kuwait allocated 0.4% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA to and through the multilateral system

In 2022, Kuwait provided USD 27.5 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, a decrease of 11.8% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 2 million was core multilateral ODA, while USD 25.5 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 56.8% of Kuwait’s non-core contributions and 43.2% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Kuwait’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to UN entities and other multilateral institutions, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

 

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The UN system received 50.4% of Kuwait’s multilateral contributions, all in the form of earmarked contributions. Out of the total volume of USD 13.8 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Kuwait’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the WHO (USD 5.3 million), UNICEF (USD 2.3 million) and UN Habitat (USD 1.5 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, Kuwait’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 522.9 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 30.4% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, country programmable aid was 94.6% of Kuwait’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to a non-DAC country average of 47%.

 

Note: NGO: non-governmental organisation.

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In 2022, Kuwait channelled their bilateral ODA mainly through the public sector, followed by multilateral organisations.

 

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Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA

In 2022, Kuwait’s bilateral ODA was primarily focused on Africa. USD 301.3 million was allocated to Africa and USD 94 million to Central, South and East Asia, accounting for 57.6% and 18% of gross bilateral ODA, respectively. USD 50.6 million was allocated to the Middle East (9.7%).

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 66.2% of gross bilateral ODA went to Kuwait’s top 10 recipients. Its top 10 recipients are spread over many regions, including Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 2.5%.

 

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In 2022, Kuwait allocated 0.02% of its GNI to the least developed countries (LDCs). Kuwait allocated 44.4% of its gross bilateral ODA to lower-middle income countries (LMICs) in 2022, noting that 2.5% was unallocated by income group. Additionally, Kuwait allocated 10.9% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries (LLDCs) in 2022, equal to USD 57.1 million. Kuwait allocated 5.6% of gross bilateral ODA to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2022, equal to USD 29.4 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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Fragile contexts

Support to fragile contexts reached USD 105.9 million in 2022, representing 20.3% of Kuwait’s gross bilateral ODA. Five per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, decreasing from 10.6% in 2021. No support went to conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, compared to 16.2% in 2021. Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.

 

Note: HDP: humanitarian-development-peace. The chart represents only gross bilateral official development assistance that is allocated by country.

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Sectors

In 2022, economic infrastructure and services were allocated the largest share of Kuwait’s bilateral ODA. Investments in this area amounted to USD 224 million (42.8%), with a strong focus on transport and storage (USD 170.8 million) and energy (USD 49.9 million). Social infrastructure and services received USD 183.8 million (35.1%), mostly in support of water and sanitation (USD 101.8 million), health and population (USD 46.7 million) and education (USD 33.7 million). Health and population accounted for 9% of gross bilateral ODA in 2022, representing an increase of 12% from 2019 in real terms. Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 17.8 million, representing 3.4% of Kuwait’s bilateral ODA.

 

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ODA for COVID-19

In 2022, Kuwait disbursed USD 10 million in ODA for the COVID-19 response in the form of a contribution to the COVAX Facility.

Other cross cutting sectors and themes

• In 2022, Kuwait committed USD 82.1 million (68.7% of its bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy in 2022.

Effectiveness of development co-operation

The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation monitoring exercise tracks the implementation of the effectiveness commitments. Following a reform of the exercise during the 2020-22, the 4th global monitoring round (2023-26) has resumed. Information on partner countries’ participation in the exercise as well as their progress can be followed at the Global Dashboard.

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 Kuwait as TOSSD totalled USD 524.9 million, down from USD 805.7 million in 2021, and Kuwait’s TOSSD activities in support of sustainable development mostly targeted SDG 9 Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation, and SDG 17 Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development. Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

Kuwait’s Law No. 35 of 1961 created the legal basis for KFAED to act as an implementing agency in all developing countries on behalf of the Kuwaiti government. KFAED was initially an institution for development co-operation with other countries in the Arab region, but has developed into a global provider. KFAED acts under the Prime Minister’s overall supervision. Since 2003 the Fund’s mandate has been transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Other ministries, public authorities and non-governmental organisations also promote international development, notably the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which can also provide humanitarian assistance.

 

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Additional resources

Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development: https://www.kuwait-fund.org/en/web/kfund.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Kuwait: https://aid.mofa.gov.kw.

Kuwait is a participant of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 2018. Kuwait is also a member of the Arab Coordination Group, and regularly participates in the Arab-DAC Dialogue on Development.

Kuwait has been reporting to the OECD since 1970 and reporting activity-level data since 2011 on 2010 activities.

Kuwait is an Adherent to the Protocol amending the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

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.

Notes

← 1.  DAC members adopted the grant-equivalent methodology starting from their reporting of 2018 data as a more accurate way to count the donor effort in development loans. See the methodological notes for further details.

← 2.  Non-grants include sovereign loans, multilateral loans, equity investment and loans to the private sector.