Development Co‑operation Profiles: Azerbaijan
Table of contents
Azerbaijan is an emerging provider of development co-operation, sharing its experience of economic transformation 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 through bilateral and multilateral channels. Azerbaijan remains committed to promoting the international development agenda and global prosperity through its development co-operation policy, which is an integral part of the country’s foreign policy. Azerbaijan provided USD 61.9 million of official development assistance (ODA) decreased in 2024, representing 0.08% of gross national income (GNI) (preliminary data). In November 2024, Azerbaijan hosted the 29th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku. A central focus of the conference was climate finance for sustainable development, and Azerbaijan has worked towards advancing international co-operation on climate action and sustainable development in its capacity of COP29 Presidency.
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocation. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
The policy framework for Azerbaijan’s development co-operation is directly derived from its determination to support international peace and cooperation, as well as international commitments, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with its national foreign policy priorities.
The Azerbaijan International Development Agency (AIDA) is responsible for implementing Azerbaijan’s development co-operation. Since its inception, AIDA has been employing multiple mechanisms to support poverty eradication and sustainable development in numerous countries, by building human and institutional capacity, sharing experience and good practices. Guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), AIDA focuses on the sectoral 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. It has a strong focus on capacity development projects, including knowledge sharing, technical assistance, scholarships and humanitarian co-operation.
Azerbaijan provided USD 61.9 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2024 (USD 60.5 million in constant terms), representing 0.08% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 40.9% in real terms in volume and decrease in the share of GNI from 2023. Azerbaijan is not in line with international commitments to achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio by 2030. 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.2
Note: This table only includes information about ODA data-related DAC recommendations. ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income.
Azerbaijan provided a higher share of its ODA bilaterally in 2023. Gross bilateral ODA was 88.1% of total ODA disbursements. A little less than one-fifth (18.4%) of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2023, Azerbaijan provided USD 28.9 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 61.6% in real terms from 2022. Of this, USD 12.2 million was core multilateral ODA (11.9% of total ODA), while USD 16.6 million was 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 3.5% of Azerbaijan’s non-core contributions and 96.5% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific‑purpose programmes and funds).
The United Nations (UN) system received 16.9% of Azerbaijan’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 1.2 million (24.3%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 4.9 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Azerbaijan’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (USD 2 million); the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (USD 1.1 million); and the UN Secretariat (USD 700 thousand).
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.
In 2023, Azerbaijan’s bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 90.2 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 144.4% in real terms from 2022.
In 2023, country programmable aid amounted to USD 6.4 million, or 7.1% of Azerbaijan’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the non-DAC country average of 37.7%.
In 2023, Azerbaijan channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through public sector.
In 2023, Azerbaijan’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on ODA-eligible countries in Europe. USD 71.1 million was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 11.7% was for Ukraine) and USD 8.7 million to Asia (excluding the Middle East), accounting respectively for 78.9% and 9.7% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 400 thousand was allocated to countries in Africa. Asia (excluding the Middle East) was also the main regional recipient of Azerbaijan’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations. Azerbaijan’s focus in Europe and Asia is in line with its oits development co-operation priorities.
In 2023, 80.9% of gross bilateral ODA went to Azerbaijan’s top 10 recipients. Its top recipient was Türkiye, which received USD 62.22 million, followed by Ukraine, which received USD 8.36 million. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 19%.
Azerbaijan allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (69.1%) to upper middle-income countries in 2023, noting that 19% was unallocated by income group.
In 2024, Azerbaijan provided USD 3.6 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion, a 57.8% decrease from 2023 in real terms.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 2.4 million in 2023, representing 2.7% of Azerbaijan’s gross bilateral ODA. Ninety-nine per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, an increase from 97% in 2022. Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2023, the majority of Azerbaijan’s bilateral ODA was allocated to humanitarian assistance. Investments in this area accounted for 81.1% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 73.1 million), with a strong focus on support to reconstruction relief and rehabilitation (USD 59.1 million) and emergency response (USD 14 million) ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 7.6 million, with a focus on government and civil society (USD 4.1 million). Economic infrastructure and services amounted to USD 5.6 million (6.2% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused also on social sectors and economic sectors in 2023.
In 2023, Azerbaijan committed USD 5.8 million (6.5% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy in 2023.
Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) is an international statistical standard that monitors and increases transparency of all official and officially supported resources for financing the SDGs in developing countries, as well as for addressing global challenges. In 2023, activities reported by Azerbaijan as TOSSD totalled USD 47.4 million, up from USD 43.6 million in 2022. Azerbaijan’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure). Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for implementing 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 development and humanitarian 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.
Azerbaijan provides humanitarian aid and development assistance to more than 140 countries, including 53 out of 54 African countries, 50 out of 57 Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states, and 43 out of 44 LDCs.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Azerbaijan International Development Agency (AIDA) website: http://aida.mfa.gov.az/en
Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (2021), “Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for Socio-Economic Development”, https://president.az/en/articles/view/50474
Republic of Azerbaijan (2022), “2022-2026 Social and Economic Development Strategy”, 5478ed13955fb35f0715325d7f76a8ea_3699216.pdf
Azerbaijan has been a Participant in the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 2019.
Azerbaijan has been reporting to the OECD activity-level data since 2016 on 2014-15 activities.
Azerbaijan has participated in the meetings of a few DAC subsidiary bodies, including EvalNet and Govnet. Azerbaijan participated in the DAC High Level Meeting in 2025.
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 ODA, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Member countries of the OECD.
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
© OECD 2025
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. By using this work, you accept to be bound by the terms of this licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Attribution – you must cite the work.
Translations – you must cite the original work, identify changes to the original and add the following text: In the event of any discrepancy between the original work and the translation, only the text of original work should be considered valid.
Adaptations – you must cite the original work and add the following text: This is an adaptation of an original work by the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed in this adaptation should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its Member countries.
Third-party material – the licence does not apply to third-party material in the work. If using such material, you are responsible for obtaining permission from the third party and for any claims of infringement.
You must not use the OECD logo, visual identity or cover image without express permission or suggest the OECD endorses your use of the work.
Any dispute arising under this licence shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Arbitration Rules 2012. The seat of arbitration shall be Paris (France). The number of arbitrators shall be one.
← 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.