Development Co-operation Profiles: Croatia

Since it became a development co-operation provider in 2011, Croatia has grown and diversified its international development co‑operation portfolio by providing more technical assistance and other non-financial aid. Croatia’s development co-operation draws from its experience with the European Union (EU) pre-accession process, conflict recovery, democratic transition, and its expertise in mine action and humanitarian demining, as well as the digital and green transitions. Croatia’s approach focuses on understanding recipient countries’ needs through inclusive dialogue with stakeholders. Administered by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Croatia’s development co-operation aims to foster political and economic collaboration, especially with its neighbouring countries. Croatia’s total official development assistance (ODA) increased notably in 2024 to USD 195.4 million (preliminary data), representing 0.21% of gross national income (GNI). The increase was mainly driven by an increase in in-donor refugee costs.

This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocation. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.

Policy

In February 2024, Croatia enacted the Law on International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, aligning national law with the EU, OECD and United Nations frameworks. The updated law expands the entities eligible to implement projects and introduces new financial instruments aimed at including the private sector in development co-operation, such as loans, credits, insurances and other financial instruments. Croatia is currently drafting a National Plan on Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid for 2025-2028, slated for adoption in the second half of 2025. The previous plan set out the parameters for the country’s development co-operation and humanitarian aid, with the main objective of overcoming poverty and decreasing aid dependence (Additional resources).

Through its humanitarian assistance, Croatia focuses on providing short-term support to those affected by crises, with a focus on saving lives and protecting livelihoods and health. Alongside traditional channels, Croatia is also increasing financial support to promoting knowledge sharing and mutual learning.

ODA allocation overview

Croatia provided USD 195.4 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2024 (USD 184.6 million in constant terms) representing 0.21% of GNI.1 This was an increase of 3.6% in real terms in volume and in the share of GNI from 2023. Croatia is on track to meet its commitment to reach 0.33% of GNI by 2030 as part of the collective EU commitment 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 Croatia provides only grants.2

Croatia: Performance against commitments and DAC Recommendations

Description	Target	2022	2023	2024, preliminary
ODA as a share of GNI (%)	0.33	0.19	0.21	0.21
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.01	0.01
Grant element of total ODA (%)	>86	100	100

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

Croatia provided a higher share of its ODA bilaterally in 2023. Gross bilateral ODA was 55.1% of total ODA disbursements. Six per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).

ODA to and through the multilateral system

In 2023, Croatia provided USD 85.7 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, a fall of 3.2% in real terms from 2022. Of this, USD 79.9 million was core multilateral ODA (44.9% of total ODA), while USD 5.7 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 92% of Croatia’s non-core contributions and 8% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

The United Nations (UN) system received 8.1% of Croatia’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 3.6 million (51.5%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 7 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Croatia’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were UNICEF (USD 1.8 million), the WFP (USD 1.4 million) and the UN Secretariat (USD 1.4 million).

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.

Bilateral ODA

In 2023, Croatia’s bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 98.2 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 15.4% in real terms from 2022.

In 2023, country programmable aid amounted to USD 43 million, or 43.8% of Croatia’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the non-DAC country average of 37.7%. In-donor refugee costs were USD 31.9 million in 2023, representing 32.5% of Croatia’s gross bilateral ODA. This was a decrease of 22.8% in real terms over 2022.

In 2023, Croatia channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through public sector.

Civil society organisations

In 2023, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 16.1 million of gross bilateral ODA. Overall, 0.8% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 15.6% was channelled through CSOs to implement projects initiated by the donor (earmarked funding). From 2022 to 2023, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs increased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 10.3% to 16.4%. Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.

Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA

In 2023, Croatia’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on ODA-eligible countries in Europe. USD 40.4 million was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 7.3% was for Ukraine) and USD 7.2 million to Latin America and the Caribbean, accounting respectively for 41.1% and 7.3% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 2.2 million was allocated to Asia (excluding the Middle East). Europe was also the main regional recipient of Croatia’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations.

In 2023, 50.9% of gross bilateral ODA went to Croatia’s top 10 recipients. Its top 10 recipients are mainly in Europe. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 46.8%, of which 69.3% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.

In 2023, Croatia allocated 0.01% of its GNI to the least developed countries (LDCs). Croatia allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (44.6%) to upper middle-income countries in 2023, noting that 46.8% was unallocated by income group. LDCs received 0.1% of Croatia’s gross bilateral ODA (USD 0.1 million). Additionally, Croatia allocated 3.2% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2023, equal to USD 3.1 million.

In 2024, Croatia provided USD 2.8 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion, a 10.4% decrease from 2023 in real terms. USD 2.3 million of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2024, a 11.2% decrease from 2023.

Responding to fragility

Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 2.3 million in 2023, representing 2.3% of Croatia’s gross bilateral ODA. Eighty-four per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, an increase from 9.3% in 2022, while 0.9% was allocated to peace. Learn more on the OECD States of Fragility platform.

Sectors

In 2023, the largest focus of Croatia’s bilateral ODA was social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 39.6% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 38.9 million), with a strong focus on support to health and population (USD 21.9 million), other social infrastructure and services (USD 9 million), and government and civil society (USD 5.4 million). ODA for other macro sectors totalled USD 32.3 million, with a focus on refugees in donor countries (USD 31.9 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 10.8 million (11% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused also on economic sectors and social sectors in 2023.

Gender equality

In the period 2022-23, Croatia committed 0.8% of screened bilateral allocable ODA to gender equality and women’s empowerment, compared with the 2022-23 non-DAC country average of 2.2%.3 This is equal to USD 300 thousand of screened bilateral allocable ODA in support of gender equality on average per year. In addition:

• The share of screened bilateral allocable ODA committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment as a principal objective was 0.2% in 2022-23, compared with the non-DAC country average of 0.5%.

Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance and the DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation in Development Co-operation, and by exploring the dashboard on DAC members’ development finance for gender equality.

Environment

In 2022-23, Croatia committed 3.5% of its total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 1.2 million) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions (the non-DAC country average was 0.4%). In addition:

• One per cent of total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 700 thousand) focused on climate change overall (the non-DAC country average was 2.5%). Croatia had a greater focus on mitigation (2.1%) than on adaptation (2.1%) in 2022-23.

• Two per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 500 thousand) focused on biodiversity overall (the DAC average was 7.6%).

Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Croatia: Performance against environment and Rio Markers, 2022-2023

Marker	Constant 2023 USD million	% of bilateral allocable
Rio Markers:
Biodiversity	0.5	1.6
Both climate change mitigation and adaptation	0.7	1.3

Note: Individual Rio Markers should not be added up as this can result in double counting.

Poverty focus and other policy objectives

In 2023, Croatia also:

• Allocated 22.3% of its bilateral ODA (USD 21.9 million) to core poverty-reducing sectors as defined by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1.a.1, which captures grants to basic social services (basic health and education, water supply and sanitation, multisector aid for basic social services) and development food aid. A further 2.8% of bilateral ODA (USD 2.8 million) went to social protection support.

• Committed USD 9.7 million (14.7% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy in 2023.

Effectiveness of development co-operation

The 4th global monitoring round of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) (2023-26) is underway, and Croatia is participating in the exercise as a development partner. Information on partner countries' participation, progress and results, including a mid-term observations brief, is available at the Global Dashboard.

Total Official Support for Sustainable Development

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 Croatia as TOSSD totalled USD 179.4 million, down from USD 1.2 billion in 2022. Croatia’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 16 (peace), SDG 3 (health) and SDG 4 (education). Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (Directorate-General for Economic Affairs and Development Cooperation, Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid) is the key institution engaged in development co-operation, co-ordination and policy-making processes. It implements development projects, along with other line ministries, such as the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Economy, and others, within the scope of their competencies.

Other profiles

Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.

Additional resources

Government of Croatia (2024), Act on International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, Zakon, https://mvep.gov.hr/UserDocsImages/2024/datoteke/The%20Act%20on%20International%20Development%20Cooperation%20and%20Humanitarian%20Aid_5.4.2024._150513.pdf

Government of Croatia (2017), National Strategy for Development Cooperation for the Period 2017-2021, https://mvep.gov.hr/UserDocsImages//dokumenti/vanjska-politika-docs/razvojna-suradnja//181128-national-strategy-for-development-cooperation-2017-2021-eng.pdf

Croatian Platform for International Citizen Solidarity (CROSOL): https://crosol.hr/en

Croatia has been an OECD Accession candidate since 2022. On 25 January 2022, the OECD Council decided to open accession discussions with Croatia and five other countries, taking into account the criteria of like-mindedness, significant player, mutual benefit and global considerations and recognising these countries’ progress toward fulfilling the criteria outlined in the Framework for Consideration of Prospective Members.

Croatia has been reporting to the OECD since 2012 and reporting activity-level data since 2018 on 2017 activities.

Croatia has been a Participant in the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since September 2024.

Croatia participated in the DAC High Level Meetings in 2023 and 2025. Croatia also participated as an Observer in the Peer Review of Austria in 2015 and in the Peer Review of Switzerland in 2024-25.

Croatia is an Adherent to the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas (since 2023) and the OECD Recommendation of the Council for Development Co-operation Actors on Managing the Risk of Corruption (since 2023). Learn more about DAC Recommendations.

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.

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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.

← 3.  The use of the recommended minimum criteria for the marker by some members in recent years can result in lower levels of ODA reported as being focused on gender equality.