Development Co‑operation Profiles: Malta
Table of contents
Malta’s development co-operation is a cornerstone of its foreign policy. It is driven by the primary objective of eradicating poverty and promoting sustainable development with the complementary aims of promoting democracy, good governance and greater respect for human rights to ensure the stability and development of partner countries. Its official development assistance (ODA) policy is governed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism (MFT) and implemented in collaboration with various governmental and non‑governmental partners. Malta provides the majority of its ODA through bilateral channels. Malta’s total ODA (USD 60.9 million, preliminary data) decreased in 2024, representing 0.29% of gross national income (GNI).
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocation. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Malta’s development co-operation is in line with the MFT’s 2006 Strategic Objectives (Objective 18), which is further defined in the 2013 Guiding Principles of Malta’s Foreign Policy. Since it acceded to the European Union (EU) in 2004, Malta has closely aligned with EU commitments and priorities, most notably the European Consensus on Development. Its latest Foreign Policy Strategy, alongside the latest Foreign Policy Statement (Strategic Framework for 2025-2026), frames its development co-operation efforts around promoting democracy, human rights and sustainable development.
Malta’s 2021 Official Development and Humanitarian Assistance Policy outlines its implementation plan in partnership with multilateral organisations, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations (CSOs), the private sector and academic institutions. The three overarching goals in support of the 2030 Agenda are reducing poverty and social inequality; equal rights for women and girls; and inclusive, equitable quality education and capacity building. Priority themes include climate change, peacebuilding and security, blue growth and blue economy, ocean governance, water resources policies and technologies, trade and investment, sustainable development, small states and small island states, and gender equality. Humanitarian assistance in tandem with development co-operation, predominantly administered through multilateral channels, remains a priority for Malta.
In line with Malta and Africa: A Strategy for Partnership 2020-2025, Africa is a priority region for Malta’s development co-operation as part of an integrated approach to promote development through multilateral and bilateral development and humanitarian assistance, diplomatic relationships, and trade and investment in line with Africa’s ambitions to realise its Agenda 2063.
Malta provided USD 60.9 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2024 (USD 59.6 million in constant terms) representing 0.29% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 9.2% in real terms in volume and in the share of GNI from 2023. Malta is not 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 Malta provides only grants.2
Malta has committed to several international targets and Development Assistance Committee (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.
Malta provided a higher share of its ODA bilaterally in 2023. Gross bilateral ODA was 71.7% of total ODA disbursements. Just over three per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2023, Malta provided USD 20 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, a fall of 11.4 % in real terms from 2022. Of this, USD 18.6 million was core multilateral ODA (28.3% of total ODA), while USD 1.4 million was non-core contributions earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. All was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).
The United Nations (UN) system received 7.3% of Malta’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 1.2 million (80.5%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 1.5 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Malta’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (USD 300 thousand), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (USD 200 thousand), and UN Core Contributions (USD 200 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, Malta’s bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 47.1 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 11.1% in real terms from 2022.
In 2023, country programmable aid amounted to USD 1.2 million, or 2.6% of Malta’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the non-DAC country average of 37.7%. In-donor refugee costs were USD 43.9 million in 2023, representing 93.2% of Malta’s gross bilateral ODA. This was an increase of 16.8% in real terms over 2022.
In 2023, Malta channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through public sector.
In 2023, CSOs received USD 0.7 million of gross bilateral ODA, of which 8.1% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 0.4% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 1.1% 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 0.7% to 1.4%. Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2023, Malta’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on the Middle East. USD 700 thousand was allocated to the Middle East and USD 600 thousand to countries in Africa, accounting respectively for 1.6% and 1.2% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 600 thousand was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 52.5% was for Ukraine). The Middle East was also the main regional recipient of Malta’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations.
In 2023, 3.5% of gross bilateral ODA went to Malta’s top 10 recipients. These recipients are mostly spread across the Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 95.2%, of which 97.9% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.
In 2023, Malta allocated 0.01% of its GNI to the least developed countries (LDCs). Malta allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (1.7%) to lower middle-income countries in 2023, noting that 95.2% was unallocated by income group. LDCs received 0.9% of Malta’s gross bilateral ODA (USD 400 thousand). Additionally, Malta allocated 0.4% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2023, equal to USD 200 thousand.
In 2024, Malta provided USD 0.1 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion, a 63.3% decrease from 2023 in real terms. USD 0.1 million of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2024, a 29.3% decrease from 2023.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 1.2 million in 2023, representing 2.6% of Malta’s gross bilateral ODA. Almost 24% of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, an increase from 7.1% in 2022, while 50.1% was allocated to peace, an increase from 4.8% in 2022. Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2023, USD 43.9 million of Malta’s bilateral ODA was spent to aid refugees in donor countries under other sectors. Investments in other sectors accounted for 94.3% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 44.4 million), including administrative costs of donors (USD 400 thousand), and unallocated/unspecified (USD 100 thousand), aside from in-donor refugee costs. ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 2.1 million, with a focus on government and civil society (USD 1.4 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 600 thousand (1.2% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused also on social sectors and other sectors in 2023.
In 2023, Malta allocated 0.7% of its bilateral ODA (USD 300 thousand) 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.
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 Malta as TOSSD totalled USD 84.6 million, down from USD 102.4 million in 2022. Malta’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 1 (no poverty) and SDG 2 (zero hunger). Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.
ODA falls under the responsibility of the MFT. The ministry’s Directorate-General for Global Issues, Economic Affairs and Development serves as the national lead on matters related to Malta’s ODA, working in close co-operation with other government bodies involved in its implementation. Malta's overall ODA efforts are monitored through the compilation of relevant statistics, gathered from all relevant ministries and stakeholders. The MFT collates these statistics and reports them annually to the OECD.
Civil society organisations active in development co-operation, humanitarian assistance and global citizenship education co-ordinate under SKOP – Malta’s National Platform of Development Non-Governmental Organisations.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism: https://foreign.gov.mt
Malta’s Foreign Policy Strategy (2022): https://foreign.gov.mt/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Foreign-Policy-Strategy.pdf
Malta’s Foreign Policy Statement (Strategic Framework for 2025-2026): https://foreign.gov.mt/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Foreign-Policy-Statement-Strategic-Framework-2025-2026v2.pdf
Malta and Africa. A Strategy for Partnership 2020-2025: https://foreign.gov.mt/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Africa-Strategy-2020-2025.pdf
SKOP – Malta’s National Platform of Development Non-Governmental Organisations: https://skop.mt
Malta has been an Invitee to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 2023.
Malta has been reporting to the OECD since 2009, and reporting activity-level data since 2022 on 2021 data.
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.
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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.