Development Co‑operation Profiles: Greece
Table of contents
Greece’s development co-operation seeks to support stability, sustainable development and poverty reduction with a focus on its neighbourhood and beyond with countries that share close cultural and geographic ties. Greece’s development co-operation is primarily comprised of multilateral expenditure, principally to European Union (EU) institutions, and in-donor refugee costs. Greece’s total official development assistance (ODA) (USD 357.8 million, preliminary data) decreased in 2025, representing 0.13% of gross national income (GNI).
This profile presents verified data on Greece’s development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
The 2021 Law on Development Co-operation and the 2024-2027 National Programme guide Greece’s development co-operation policy. The 2024-2027 National Programme sets out a pragmatic geographic concentration on seven countries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea as first priorities and an additional eight countries as second priorities. In addition to Ukraine, all countries have strong cultural ties to Greece in Southeast Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, the Black Sea and sub-Saharan Africa. Greece’s priorities are poverty, health, education and sustainable economic development while climate, governance, gender and digital transformation are to be addressed across the programme. While Hellenic Aid is responsible for planning and formulating Greece’s development co-operation strategy, the majority of Greece’s ODA is disbursed by the Ministry of Finance to EU institutions.
Greece’s multilateral expenditure almost exclusively comprises core contributions, mostly to the EU development budget. It is strengthening its engagement in EU initiatives, including through “Team Greece”, a new cross-governmental platform involving the private sector to support investment under the European Union’s Global Gateway. In addition, Greece also seeks to resolve the challenges facing the Mediterranean, Southeast Europe and the Middle East and advocates for a safe marine environment in the eastern Mediterranean.
The OECD-DAC 2025 mid-term review highlights Greece’s efforts to rebuild its development co-operation system following a prolonged period of economic adjustment. This second mid-term review notes progress to reform its legislative, institutional and internal systems. It also highlights Greece’s solidarity towards refugees and asylum seekers from regional crises in its neighbourhood. However, with ODA levels among the lowest in the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and a very limited bilateral programme beyond in-donor refugee costs, the impact of these reforms will remain constrained without a clear plan to scale up resources.
Discover insights from Greece’s 2019 Peer Review, 2022 mid-term review and 2025 mid-term review.
Greece provided USD 357.8 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2025 (USD 331.5 million in constant terms), representing 0.13% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 10.9% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2024. This decrease was due primarily to a decline in bilateral ODA, with ODA to Ukraine having declined. Greece is not in line with the international/EU commitments to achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio by 2030. Greece provided all of its ODA as grants in 2024.
In 2025, Greece ranked 27th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members in terms of ODA volume and 31st when ODA is taken as a share of GNI. Greece’s ODA is yet to recover from significant cuts in public sector expenditure following the global financial crisis. In-donor refugee costs make up the lion’s share of Greece’s bilateral ODA.
Greece is committed to several international targets and DAC standards and recommendations. Learn more about DAC Recommendations.
Notes: This table only includes information about ODA data-related DAC recommendations. ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income; DAC: Development Assistance Committee.
Greece provided most of its ODA multilaterally in 2024. Gross bilateral ODA was 17.7% of total ODA disbursements. Fifteen per cent was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, Greece provided USD 316.2 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 9.2% in real terms from 2023. Of this, USD 306.1 million was core multilateral ODA (82.3% of total ODA), while USD 10.1 million was non-core contributions earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. Programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds) accounted for all of Greece’s non-core contributions. The European institutions (USD 304.4 million) are by far Greece’s main multilateral partner.
The United Nations (UN) system received 2.7% of Greece’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 2 million (23.2%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 8.6 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Greece’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the UN Secretariat (USD 1.9 million), the United Nations Department of Peace Operations (USD 1.6 million) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (USD 1.5 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 DAC members’ use of the multilateral system dashboard.
In 2024, Greece’s bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 66 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 11.7% in real terms from 2023.
In 2024, country programmable aid amounted to USD 14.3 million, or 21.6% of Greece’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 46.5%.
Greece’s in-donor refugee costs amounted to USD 46.2 million (70% of gross bilateral ODA) in 2024, while humanitarian aid was USD 2.3 million, or 3.5% of gross bilateral ODA.
Greece disbursed USD 300 thousand for triangular co-operation in 2024. Its regional priority is Europe. Learn more about triangular co-operation.
In 2024, Greece channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through public sector. Technical co-operation made up 0.5% of gross ODA in 2024.
In 2023, Greece did not provide support for civil society organisations (CSOs). Learn more by reading the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid and by exploring the ODA to civil society organisations dashboard.
In 2024, Greece’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on ODA-eligible countries in Europe. USD 14.8 million was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 95.7% for Ukraine) and USD 800 thousand to countries in Africa, accounting respectively for 22.5% and 1.2% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 700 thousand was allocated to the Middle East. Countries in Europe were also the main recipient of Greece’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations. This is in line with its overall policy regional focus.
In 2024, 24.6% of gross bilateral ODA went to Greece’s top 10 recipients. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 75.1%, of which 93.2% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.
In 2024, Greece allocated 0.01% of its GNI to the least developed countries (LDCs). Greece allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (23.3%) to lower middle-income countries in 2024, noting that 75.1% was unallocated by income group. Additionally, Greece allocated 0.3% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2024, equal to USD 0.2 million.
The distribution of Greece’s ODA in net terms in relation to “ODA per person in extreme poverty”2 was USD 0.6 in lower middle-income countries (LMICs) and USD 0.5 in upper middle-income countries.
In 2025, Greece provided USD 8.2 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion, a 46.3% decrease from 2024 in real terms. USD 8.2 million of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2025, a 113 118.4% increase in real terms from 2024.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 700 thousand in 2024, representing 1.1% of Greece’s gross bilateral ODA. Of this ODA, 49.6% was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, a decrease from 70.9% in 2023. Learn more about the States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, more than half of Greece’s bilateral ODA was allocated to support for refugees in donor countries (USD 46.2). Administrative costs of donors accounted for USD 1.3 million. ODA for humanitarian assistance totalled USD 2.3 million, with a focus on emergency response (USD 2.3 million). Social infrastructure and services amounted to USD 1.8 million (2.7% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused on macro and economic sectors in 2024.
In the period 2023-2024, Greece did not commit any of its screened bilateral allocable ODA to gender equality and women’s empowerment compared to 0.9% in 2021-2022 and a DAC average of 48.2% in 2023-2024. Greece screens all bilateral allocable ODA against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2023-2024).
Learn more by reading 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 development finance for gender equality dashboard.
In 2023-2024, Greece committed 2% of its total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 200 thousand) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, up from 0.1% in 2021-2022. The DAC average was 39%. In addition:
1.9% of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 11.2%.
0.1% of total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 10 thousand) focused on climate change overall (the DAC average was 35.4%), up from 0% in 2021-2022. Greece had a greater focus on adaptation (0.1%) than on mitigation (0%) in 2023-2024.
1.2% of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 100 thousand) focused on biodiversity overall (the DAC average was 8.6%), up from 0% in 2021-2022.
Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
In 2024, total official and private flows from Greece to developing countries amounted to USD 473.8 million in net terms. Official sources accounted for USD 372.1 million while USD 101.7 million originated from private sources.
Total official support for sustainable development (TOSSD) is an international statistical standard that monitors and increases the transparency of all official and officially supported resources for financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) received by developing countries (Pillar 1) and for addressing global challenges (Pillar 2). In 2024, activities reported by Greece as TOSSD totalled USD 384.3 million, marking a 6% increase compared with the previous year. Greece’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) and SDG 4 (quality education).
Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.
With Law 4781/2021 regulating the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ function, the status of the former Directorate General of International Development Cooperation-Hellenic Aid (YDAS) as an independent unit within the ministry shifted to that of a directorate-general of the ministry, becoming an integral part of it. The Directorate-General for Development and Humanitarian Aid (Hellenic Aid) is the national authority and the co-ordinating mechanism for planning and shaping Greece’s development co‑operation strategy. It promotes, manages and implements the national development co-operation policy.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has 25 staff working on development co-operation, 4 of whom are serving abroad.
CSOs and private sector representatives are meant to engage with the government within the National Advisory Committee on Development Cooperation to shape the Hellenic development co-operation priorities and strategy, whenever its activity resumes. Private sector representatives engage through Team Greece, a cross-governmental body bringing together the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, several line ministries, the Hellenic Development Bank and Export Credit Greece to co-ordinate contributions to the European Union’s Global Gateway.
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development placed a renewed emphasis on strengthening the effectiveness of all forms of development co-operation by upholding and elevating the Effectiveness Principles. Adherence to these principles is measured through the partner country-led monitoring exercise of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC).
Internal systems and processes help ensure the delivery of Greece’s development co-operation. The table below highlights select features.
Access the full list of development co-operation providers at: Development Co-operation Profiles.
2025 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Greece: https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/AR(2026)3/9/en/pdf.
2021 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Greece: https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/9/en/pdf.
2019 OECD-DAC Peer Review of Greece: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264311893-en.
Directorate General of International Development Cooperation-Hellenic Aid: https://hellenicaid.mfa.gr/en/hellenic-aid.
Greece has been a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1999.
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.
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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.
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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. 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. It estimates how much ODA each person in extreme poverty would receive if total ODA was divided evenly among the extreme poor. This metric does not measure the amount of ODA actually received by each person in extreme poverty, nor does it measure how much ODA goes to poverty reduction. It instead highlights patterns in total ODA allocations relative to the number of people living 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. See the methodological notes for further details.