- Policy
- ODA allocation overview
- ODA to and through the multilateral system
- Bilateral ODA
- Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA
- Private sector instruments
- Mobilised private finance
- Total Official Support for Sustainable Development
- Institutional set-up
- Quality and oversight
- Other profiles
- Additional resources
Development Co‑operation Profiles: Finland
Table of contents
Finland’s development co-operation prioritises the closer connection between trade and development alongside areas identified as Finland’s strengths: fostering the rights of women and girls, education, and climate action. The readmission of nationals and support for the international rules-based order are conditions for Finland’s development co-operation. A growing share of Finland’s development co-operation programme focuses on private sector-driven instruments. Finland’s total official development assistance (ODA) decreased in 2024 to USD 1.4 billion (preliminary data), representing 0.47% of gross national income (GNI).
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocation. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
In mid-2024, the Finnish government published the Report on International Economic Relations and Development Cooperation, which complements the government’s Report on Foreign and Security Policy with more detailed trade and development policy measures giving attention to the rapid changes in the international environment. In accordance with the 2024 policy, Finland is supporting the stabilisation of developing countries more selectively than before, reducing the number of programme partner countries from nine to five (Ethiopia, Nepal, the Syrian Arab Republic, the United Republic of Tanzania and Ukraine). Finland’s new policy also includes a stronger focus on promoting its strategic interests and on fostering the strengths that have helped Finland develop into a stable democracy, such as the status of women and their right to self-determination, and local democracy.
Finland provides around half of its ODA multilaterally. It has contributed to significant changes in the policies and practices of multilateral organisations, such as working to manage results and championing gender equality across a range of investments related to peace and security, agriculture, and climate change. Finland’s development co-operation includes a robust evaluation function and evaluation reports are made public.
The 2024 Peer Review found that Finland’s strategic partnerships and political leadership to reduce poverty and inequalities have contributed to its strong reputation globally and noted that Finland had taken steps to address 11 of the 12 recommendations from the last Peer Review in 2017. Nevertheless, several changes are underway. Alongside a 25% reduction in Finland’s ODA in the period 2024‑27, several reforms, including a comprehensive review of the legislative framework and a reform of Finland’s Foreign Service, are reshaping the system. New policies in 2024 emphasise support for Ukraine and the more explicit use of development co-operation to boost the international presence of Finnish companies. Discover insights from Finland’s 2024 Peer Review and 2021 mid-term review, and learn from Finland’s practices in Development Co-operation Tools Insights Practices (TIPs).
Finland provided USD 1.4 billion (preliminary data) of ODA in 2024 (USD 1.4 billion in constant terms), representing 0.47% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 12.9% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2023. Finland’s ODA will be reduced by 25% over 2024-27, putting it further off track in relation to its domestic, international and European Union (EU) commitments to achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio by 2030. Within Finland’s ODA portfolio in 2023, 84.3% was provided in the form of grants and 15.7% in the form of non-grants.2
In 2024, Finland ranked 12th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries when ODA is taken as a share of GNI. A growing share of Finland’s development co-operation programme focuses on private sector-driven instruments. Finland has historically mobilised a high share of finance from the private sector that targets the least developed countries (LDCs) and other low-income countries, although this focus declined since 2021. Among the DAC, Finland allocates the highest share of its private sector instruments to agriculture, forestry and fishing (25.8%) and in 2023, Finland also ranked first in terms of the share of bilateral allocable ODA committed to supporting domestic resource mobilisation in partner countries (2.3%). At USD 249.5 million in 2023, in-donor costs for hosting refugees remained a significant share of Finland’s ODA (26.5% of gross bilateral ODA).
Finland has committed to several international targets and DAC standards and recommendations. Learn more about DAC Recommendations.
Note: This table only includes information about ODA data-related DAC Recommendations. ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income; DAC: Development Assistance Committee.
Finland provided over half of its ODA bilaterally in 2023. Gross bilateral ODA was 55.8% of total ODA disbursements. Twenty-nine per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2023, Finland provided USD 1 billion of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 7.4% in real terms from 2022. Of this, USD 745.6 million was core multilateral ODA (44.2% of total ODA), while USD 275.5 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 28.3% of Finland’s non‑core contributions whereas 71.7% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).
The United Nations (UN) system received 32.9% of Finland’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 200 million (59.6%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 335.6 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Finland’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the United Nations Children’s Fund (USD 44.7 million), the United Nations Population Fund (USD 43.2 million) and the UN Refugee Agency (USD 38.9 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.
Learn more by exploring the dashboard on DAC members’ use of the multilateral system.
In 2023, Finland’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 941.2 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 15% in real terms from 2022.
In 2023, country programmable aid amounted to USD 250 million, or 26.6% of Finland’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 43.1%. In-donor refugee costs were USD 249.5 million in 2023 representing 26.5% of Finland’s gross bilateral ODA. This was a decrease of 43% in real terms over 2022.
In 2023, Finland channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through public sector, multilateral organisations and non-governmental organisations. Technical co-operation made up 2.3% of gross ODA in 2023.
In 2023, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 175.8 million of gross bilateral ODA, of which 3.4% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 3.7% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 15% 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 13.8% to 18.7%. Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2023, Finland’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on countries in Africa. USD 249.4 million was allocated to countries in Africa and USD 99.2 million to countries in Asia (excluding the Middle East), accounting respectively for 26.5% and 10.5% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 85.3 million was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 81.9% for Ukraine). Asia (excluding the Middle East) was also the main regional recipient of Finland’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations.
In 2023, 26.7% of gross bilateral ODA went to Finland’s top 10 recipients. As of 2023, all of Finland’s top 10 recipients were long-term priority partner countries. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 62.3%, of which 42.6% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.
In 2023, Finland allocated 0.14% of its GNI to LDCs. Finland allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (19.4%) to least developed countries in 2023 with a volume of USD 182.5 million, noting that 62.3% was unallocated by income group. Finland allocated 11.6% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2023, equal to USD 109.1 million.
Looking at the distribution of Finland’s ODA in relation to “ODA per person in extreme poverty”,3 the amount was USD 0.6 in LDCs, USD 0.7 in lower middle-income countries (LMICs) and USD 1.4 in upper middle-income countries.
In 2024, Finland provided USD 36.7 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion, a 48.4% decrease from 2023 in real terms. USD 19.7 million of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2024, a 22.4% decrease from 2023.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 222.3 million in 2023, representing 23.6% of Finland’s gross bilateral ODA. Twenty-six per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, a slight increase from 24.1% in 2022, while 19.6% was allocated to peace, an increase from 18.6% in 2022. Seven per cent of gross bilateral ODA went to conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, representing an increase from 4.7% in 2022. Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2023, the largest sectoral focus of Finland’s bilateral ODA was on other macro sectors, namely support to refugees in donor countries (USD 249.5 million) and donor administrative costs (USD 59.1 million). ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 157.2 million, with a focus on government and civil society (USD 75.7 million). Production sectors amounted to USD 125.2 million (14.5% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused on social sectors and economic sectors in 2023.
In the period 2022-23, Finland committed 65.8% of screened bilateral allocable ODA to gender equality and women’s empowerment, compared to 62.6% in 2020-214 and a 2022-23 DAC average of 45.8%. This is equal to USD 316 million 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 4.2% in 2022-23, compared with the DAC average of 4%.
Finland includes gender equality objectives in 40.2% of ODA for humanitarian aid, above the 2022-23 DAC average of 19.1%.
Finland screens the majority of bilateral allocable ODA activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (84.1% in 2022-23).
Finland committed USD 4.8 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls and USD 6.5 million to support women’s rights organisations and movements, and government institutions on average in 2022-23.
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.
In 2022-23, Finland committed 31% of its total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 177.2 million) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, up from 28.6% in 2020-21. The DAC average was 39% in 2022-23. In addition:
Less than one per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 9.6%.
Twenty-seven per cent of total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 155 million) focused on climate change overall, down from 27.1% in 2020-21 (the DAC average was 34.8%). Finland had a greater focus on adaptation (20.3%) than on mitigation (20.2%) in 2022-23.
Seven per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 37.4 million) focused on biodiversity overall, up from 5.2% in 2020-21 (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.
Note: Individual Rio Markers should not be added up as this can result in double counting.
The OECD’s tracking of ODA for the sustainable ocean economy shows that Finland committed USD 3.1 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2023, USD 2 million more than in 2022. The 2023 value is equivalent to 0.6% of Finland’s bilateral allocable ODA.
In 2023, Finland:
Allocated 5.2% of its bilateral ODA (USD 48.7 million) to core poverty-reducing sectors as defined by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1.a.1. This indicator captures grants to basic social services (such as basic health and education, water supply and sanitation) and development food aid. In addition, 0.8% of bilateral ODA (USD 7.9 million) went to social protection support.
Committed USD 9.2 million (1.7% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to address the immediate or underlying determinants of malnutrition in developing countries across a variety of sectors, such as emergency response, government and civil society, and other multisector.
Committed USD 30.5 million (5.5% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to development co-operation projects and programmes that promote the inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities.
Committed USD 12.4 million (2.3% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to the mobilisation of domestic resources in developing countries. Regarding the payment of local tax and customs duties for ODA-funded goods and services, Finland sometimes seeks exemptions. It makes this information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.
Committed USD 205.3 million (37.3% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy in 2023.
To build markets in developing countries and incentivise greater mobilisation of private resources for development, many providers, including Finland, have established development finance institutions (DFIs) and similar vehicles that extend private sector instruments (PSI). The Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd. (Finnfund) was assessed as an ODA-eligible PSI vehicle. PSI represented 3.8% of Finland’s ODA in 2023 while the DAC average stood at 1.3%.
In 2023, Finnfund extended USD 175 million in the form of PSI to developing countries.5 Of this, loans accounted for 33% whereas equities accounted for 52.9%. Other private sector instruments included mezzanine finance instruments.
In 2023, USD 7.6 million (4.3%) of Finland’s PSI were allocated to the LDCs and other low-income countries (LICs), with 33.1% received by middle-income countries and LMICs in particular (28.5%). USD 109.4 million was unallocated by income. Finland’s PSI primarily supported projects in the banking and financial services (54.3%) and agriculture, forestry, fishing (25.8%).
Finland uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2023, Finland’s FinnFund and Finnish Government mobilised USD 18 million from the private sector through direct investment in companies and SPVs, shares in CIVs and simple co-financing. This constituted a 75.3% decrease compared to 2022.
Private finance mobilised by Finland in 2022-23 mainly targeted middle-income countries, representing 22.3% of its total mobilised. Only 0.1% of total mobilised private finance during this period benefited the LDCs and other LICs, noting that 77.6% was unallocated by income.
Mobilised private finance by Finland in 2022-23 related mainly to activities in banking and financial services (71.7%) as its top sector.
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 Finland as TOSSD totalled USD 1.7 billion, down slightly from USD 1.8 billion in 2022. Finland’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) and SDG 4 (quality education). Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) is under the direction of three ministers dedicated to foreign affairs, foreign trade and development, and Nordic co-operation. The Department for Development Policy within the MFA is responsible for Finland’s international development and humanitarian policy, development finance, and overall planning and monitoring of development co-operation. The Development Policy Committee, Finland’s government-appointed advisory body, monitors and reviews Finland’s development co-operation and policy. The Political Department and the Department for External Economic Relations provide policy guidance to the regional departments responsible for their respective geographic areas. Finnfund is Finland’s development finance institution.
The MFA employs around 2 200 staff; around one-third (800 staff) are based in headquarters and two‑thirds in embassies (1 400). Approximately 100 MFA staff work on development co-operation, with a further 30 locally hired staff working on development in Finland’s embassies.
The Development Policy Committee is an important mechanism for consulting stakeholders that includes parliamentarians, experts, civil servants, civil society actors and researchers. It plays a key role in producing evidence for policy and encouraging dialogue, serving as a sounding board for the MFA. CSOs active in development co-operation co-ordinate under the umbrella body Finnish Development Organizations – Fingo.
Internal systems and processes help ensure the effective delivery of Finland’s development co-operation. Select features are shown in the table below.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
2024 OECD-DAC Peer Review of Finland: https://doi.org/10.1787/2a9a43a2-en
2021 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Finland: https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/22/en/pdf
2017 OECD-DAC Peer Review of Finland: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264287235-en
Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs: https://um.fi/development-policy-and-development-cooperation
Finnfund: https://www.finnfund.fi/en
Development Policy Committee: https://www.kehityspoliittinentoimikunta.fi/en
Finnish Development Organizations – Fingo: https://fingo.fi/en/finnish-development-ngos-fingo
Finland has been a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1975.
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.
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.
Note by the Republic of Türkiye
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← 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. Aid per person in extreme poverty is calculated by dividing net ODA (bilateral and imputed multilateral) by the population in extreme poverty in each country. Group averages are calculated based on a weighted average of aid per person in extreme poverty and the number of people in extreme poverty for each country in the group. For more information on this indicator, please see here.
← 4. 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.
← 5. In 2023, the DAC agreed on revised reporting methods for measuring PSI in ODA based on ODA grant equivalents. Members may, however, take up to two years to transition to the new methods, with their PSI continuing to be accounted for on a net ODA basis during the transition period.