Development Co‑operation Profiles: Ireland
Table of contents
Reaching the furthest behind is the overarching objective of Ireland’s development co-operation. Ireland focuses its development co-operation on least developed countries (LDCs) and fragile contexts, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, concentrating on social sectors and humanitarian assistance. Most official development assistance (ODA) is channelled to multilateral organisations and civil society organisations (CSOs). Ireland’s total ODA (USD 2.1 billion, preliminary data) decreased in 2025, representing 0.42% of gross national income (GNI).
This profile presents verified data on Ireland’s development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Ireland’s 2019 policy for international development, “A Better World”, focuses on “reaching the furthest behind”, a multidimensional concept encompassing multiple forms of poverty, inequalities and their intersections. The policy sets four priorities: 1) gender equality; 2) reducing humanitarian needs; 3) addressing climate change; and 4) enhancing governance. To achieve these goals, Ireland commits to take action in protection (including fragility), food and human development. Ireland’s bilateral co-operation focuses on Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Sierra Leone, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and small island and developing states (SIDS). A series of “Global Ireland Strategies towards 2025” were developed in 2018 and there have been biannual reviews since.
An Operational Framework for Multilateral Engagement guides Ireland’s partnerships with the United Nations (UN) system, the European Union (EU) and multilateral development banks. Ireland provides high shares of core, flexible and multi-year funding and advocates for LDCs and fragile contexts. Ireland is a promoter of development education and has a Global Citizenship Education Policy. Ireland’s first International Climate Finance Roadmap set out how it intends to meet its climate finance targets. A tax treaty policy contains a specific approach for developing countries.
The 2023 OECD-DAC mid-term review commended Ireland for having made progress on all the recommendations from the previous Peer Review, albeit to varying degrees. It found that Ireland had continued its leadership as an advocate for sustainable development, was a staunch multilateralist, a good partner for civil society and a promoter of development education. The mid-term review highlighted opportunities to achieve and maintain a substantially higher ODA/GNI ratio. It underlined the need for continued investments in human resources, guidance on its priorities and policy coherence.
Discover insights from Ireland’s 2020 Peer Review and 2023 mid-term review, and learn from Ireland’s practices in Development Co-operation Tools Insights Practices.
Ireland provided USD 2.1 billion (preliminary data) of ODA in 2025 (USD 2 billion in constant terms), representing 0.42% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 22.5% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2024. The decrease was due primarily to a decline in bilateral ODA, particularly in-donor refugee costs. Ireland is not in line with its domestic and EU 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 Ireland provides only grants.
In 2025, Ireland ranked 18th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members in terms of ODA volume and 10th when ODA is taken as a share of GNI. In 2024, Ireland dedicated the largest share among the DAC of bilateral allocable ODA to malnutrition (45.2%). Ireland also ranks second for share of gross bilateral ODA as core contributions to CSOs and third in terms of refugee costs as a share of total gross ODA.
Ireland 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.
Ireland provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2024. Gross bilateral ODA was 70.7% of total ODA disbursements. Of this, 16.6% was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, Ireland provided USD 1.1 billion of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 7.7% in real terms from 2023. Of this, USD 745.6 million was core multilateral ODA (29.3% of total ODA), while USD 310.1 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 18.1% of Ireland’s non-core contributions, and 81.9% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).
The United Nations (UN) system received 33.3% of Ireland’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 219.5 million (62.5%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 351.1 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Ireland’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (USD 65.2 million), World Food Programme (USD 49.3 million) and United Nations Children’s Fund (USD 41.2 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, Ireland’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 1.8 billion of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 19.9% in real terms from 2023.
In 2024, country programmable aid amounted to USD 219.1 million, or 12.2% of Ireland’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 46.5%.
Ireland’s in-donor refugee costs amounted to USD 1.1 billion (59.5% of gross bilateral ODA) in 2024, while humanitarian aid was USD 206.3 million, or 11.5% of gross bilateral ODA.
In 2024, Ireland channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through public sector and multilateral organisations. Technical co-operation made up 0.7% of gross ODA in 2024.
In 2024, CSOs received USD 290.8 million of gross bilateral ODA, of which 11.4% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 8.7% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 7.5% was channelled through CSOs to implement projects initiated by the donor (earmarked funding). From 2023 to 2024, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs increased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 13.1% to 16.2%.
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, Ireland’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on countries in Africa. USD 321.7 million was allocated to countries in Africa and USD 54.9 million to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 93.5% was for Ukraine), accounting respectively for 18.1% and 3.1% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 50 million was allocated to the Middle East. Countries in Africa were also the main regional recipient of Ireland’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations. This is in line with Ireland’s policy priorities.
In 2024, 14.7% of gross bilateral ODA went to Ireland’s top 10 recipients. With the exception of Ukraine, its top 10 recipients are in line with its policy focus. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 75.5%, of which 78.7% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.
In 2024, Ireland allocated 0.10% of its GNI to the LDCs. Ireland allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (16.6%) to least developed countries in 2024, noting that 75.5% was unallocated by income group. Additionally, Ireland allocated 9.3% of gross bilateral ODA to land‑locked developing countries in 2024, equal to USD 167.9 million. Ireland allocated 0.5% of gross bilateral ODA to SIDS in 2024, equal to USD 8.8 million.
The distribution of Ireland’s ODA in net terms in relation to “ODA per person in extreme poverty”2 was USD 0.5 in LDCs, USD 0.8 in lower middle-income countries (LMICs) and USD 1 in upper middle-income countries.
In 2025, Ireland provided USD 42.7 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion, a 21.8% decrease from 2024 in real terms. USD 17.1 million of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2025, a 44.1% decrease in real terms from 2024.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 354.3 million in 2024, representing 19.7% of Ireland’s gross bilateral ODA. Of this ODA, 32.5% was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, a decrease from 36.7% in 2023, while 16.5% was allocated to peace, a decrease from 16.5% in 2023. Conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, represented 2.4% of gross bilateral ODA, decreasing from 3.2% in 2023.
Learn more about the States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, more than half of Ireland’s bilateral ODA was allocated to other macro sectors, in particular refugees in provider countries. Investments in this area accounted for 64% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 1.2 billion), with a strong focus on support to refugees in provider countries (USD 1.1 billion), administrative costs of donors (USD 55.7 million) and a share was general budget support (USD 14.7 million). ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 274.4 million, with a focus on government and civil society (USD 99.7 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 206.3 million (11.5% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations also focused on social sectors and other macro sectors in 2024.
In the period 2023-2024, Ireland committed 72.8% of screened bilateral allocable ODA to gender equality and women’s empowerment compared to 78.1% in 2021-2022 and a DAC average of 48.2% in 2023-2024. This is equal to USD 435.3 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 12% in 2023-2024, compared with the DAC average of 4.2%.
Ireland includes gender equality objectives in 67.3% of ODA for humanitarian aid, above the 2023‑2024 DAC average of 21.5%.
Ireland screens the majority of bilateral allocable ODA against the DAC gender equality policy marker (91.7% in 2023-2024).
Ireland committed USD 17.7 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls, and USD 14.3 million to support women’s rights organisations and movements, and government institutions on average per year 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, Ireland committed 36.5% of its total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 238.3 million) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, up from 29% in 2021-2022. The DAC average was 39%. In addition:
18.6% of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 11.2%.
28.8% per cent of total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 182.1 million) focused on climate change overall (the DAC average was 35.4%), up from 22% in 2021-2022. Ireland had a greater focus on adaptation (30.2%) than on mitigation (12.6%) in 2023-2024.
11.1% of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 65.8 million) focused on biodiversity overall (the DAC average was 8.6%), up from 7.5% in 2021-2022.
7% of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 41.2 million) focused on desertification overall (the DAC average was 4.2%), up from 6.1% in 2021-2022.
Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
The OECD’s tracking of ODA for the sustainable ocean economy shows that Ireland committed USD 21.9 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2024, USD 15 million more than in 2023. The 2024 value is equivalent to 3.4% of Ireland's bilateral allocable ODA.
In 2024, Ireland:
Allocated 5.3% of its bilateral ODA (USD 94.9 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, multisector aid for basic social services) and development food aid. In addition, 1.8% of bilateral ODA (USD 31.5 million) went to social protection support. Learn more by exploring the Reducing poverty and inequalities through ODA data explainer.
Committed USD 300.3 million (45.2% 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, health and other multisector.
Committed USD 210.3 million (31.7% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to development co-operation projects and programmes that promote the inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities.
Committed USD 200 000 to the mobilisation of domestic resources in developing countries. Regarding the payment of local tax and customs duties for ODA-funded goods and services, Ireland does not make information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.
Committed USD 40.6 million (6.3% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy in 2024. Learn more by exploring the Aid for Trade dashboard.
In 2024, total official and private flows from Ireland to developing countries amounted to USD 2.7 billion in net terms. Official sources accounted for USD 2.5 billion, while USD 136.3 million originated from private sources.
Ireland uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2024, Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs mobilised USD 3.2 million from the private sector through simple co-financing. This constituted a 39.7% decrease compared to 2023.
Private finance mobilised by Ireland in 2023-2024 mainly targeted LDCs and other low-income countries, representing 68.9% of its total mobilised. Only 12.1% of total mobilised private finance during this period benefited the LDCs and middle-income countries, noting that 19% was unallocated by income.
Mobilised private finance by Ireland in 2023-2024 related mainly to activities in agriculture, forestry and fishing (58.4%) as its top sector. Furthermore, over this period, 72.9% of Ireland’s total mobilised private finance was for climate action.
Learn more by exploring the Mobilisation of private finance for development dashboard.
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 SDGs received by developing countries (Pillar 1) and for addressing global challenges (Pillar 2). In 2024, activities reported by Ireland as TOSSD totalled USD 2.6 billion, marking a 14% decrease compared with the previous year.3 Ireland’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 1 (no poverty) and SDG 13 (climate action).
Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.
The Development Co-operation and Africa Division within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) steers and co‑ordinates Irish development co-operation policies. Excluding in-donor refugee costs, the DFAT manages the largest share of Irish ODA. In addition, the department is responsible for EU co-operation. The Department of Finance provides contributions to the EU budget. Other departments mainly fund multilateral organisations and collaborate with the DFAT on specific initiatives. They co-ordinate through the Inter‑Departmental Committee on Development Cooperation. The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence oversees development co-operation in parliament.
Ireland has 222 staff working on development in Ireland, and 75 across missions. In addition, 353 local staff work on development across their missions’ network.
CSOs active in development co-operation, humanitarian assistance and global citizenship education co‑ordinate under the umbrella body, Dóchas. The Irish Development Education Association is the national network for global citizenship education.
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).
Notes: The global aggregate results of the 4th GPEDC monitoring round (2023-2026) will be published in the forthcoming 2026 GPEDC Global Monitoring Report. Learn more about partner countries’ participation, progress and country-specific results by exploring the GPEDC Global Dashboard. CRS: Creditor Reporting System; IATI: International Aid Transparency Initiative.
Internal systems and processes help ensure the delivery of Ireland’s development co-operation. The table below highlights select features.
Access the full list of development co-operation providers at: Development Co-operation Profiles.
2023 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Ireland: DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3.
2020 OECD-DAC Peer Review of Ireland: https://doi.org/10.1787/c20f6995-en.
CSO umbrella organisation Dóchas: https://www.dochas.ie.
Irish Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs: https://www.irishaid.ie.
Irish Development Education Association: https://www.ideaonline.ie.
Ireland has been a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1985.
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.
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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.
← 3. This amount does not include mobilised private finance by Ireland.