Development Co‑operation Profiles: Malta
Table of contents
Malta’s development co-operation is a cornerstone of its foreign policy, in line with its international commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the European Union’s (EU) development objectives, most notably the European Consensus on Development. Malta’s development co-operation 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. Malta’s total official development assistance (ODA) (USD 51.1 million, preliminary data) decreased in 2025, representing 0.21% of gross national income (GNI).
This profile presents verified data on Malta’s development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Malta’s development co-operation is guided by the country’s overarching ten-year Foreign Policy Strategy and its Foreign Policy Strategic Framework 2025-2026, which 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. It outlines three main goals: 1) reducing poverty and social inequality; 2) equal rights for women and girls (with a focus on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda); and 3) inclusive, equitable quality education and capacity building. There are plans to update Malta’s Development and Humanitarian Assistance Policy, with a focus on the additional priority areas of water security, climate change and digital health. Humanitarian assistance, predominantly administered through multilateral channels, remains a priority for Malta. Africa is a priority region for Malta's development co-operation. Guided by Malta and Africa: A Strategy for Partnership 2020-2025 - with a second strategy to be launched later in the year - Malta takes an integrated approach encompassing multilateral and bilateral development and humanitarian assistance, diplomatic engagement, and trade and investment, in support of Africa's Agenda 2063. Small island developing states (SIDS) also form an important element in Malta’s development policy, focusing in particular on enhancing the SIDS’ resilience to challenges posed by climate change, as well as in the area of water management and water security.
Malta actively contributes to the multilateral system at regional and global levels in support of sustainable development. It supports the agendas of the United Nations (UN), the European Union, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe, the Union for the Mediterranean, and the Commonwealth. Malta engages in regional dialogue and multilateral platforms such as the 5+5 Western Mediterranean Dialogue; the Anna Lindh Foundation; the Sommet of the Two Shores; and the EuroMed 9 Group.
Malta provided USD 51.1 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2025 (USD 48.6 million in constant terms), representing 0.21% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 23.9% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2024. Malta is not in line with its domestic EU target commitment (0.33% by 2030) and international target 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 Malta provides only grants.
Malta predominantly channels its ODA bilaterally, although in 2023, 2024, 2025 it reduced bilateral spending and increased the relative weight of multilateral contributions with allocations concentrated on Europe and the Middle East. In 2024, Malta a high percentage among other official providers beyond the DAC of gross bilateral ODA disbursements to fragile contexts given to the peace pillar of the humanitarian development-peace (HDP) nexus.
Notes: This table only includes information about ODA data-related DAC recommendations. ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income; DAC: Development Assistance Committee.
Malta provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2024. Gross bilateral ODA was 59.9% of total ODA disbursements. Of this, 31.1% was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, Malta provided USD 37.5 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 83% in real terms from 2023. Of this, USD 25.6 million was core multilateral ODA (40.1% of total ODA), while USD 11.9 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 0.5% of Malta’s non-core contributions, and 99.5% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).
The United Nations (UN) system received 7.2% of Malta’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 1.5 million (55.5%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 2.7 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Malta’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were UN Secretariat (USD 640 thousand), the UN entities (USD 600 thousand) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (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 2024, Malta’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 38.3 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 20.6% in real terms from 2023.
In 2024, country programmable aid amounted to USD 1.6 million, or 4.1% of Malta’s gross bilateral ODA.
Malta’s in-donor refugee costs amounted to USD 24.7 million (67.2% of gross bilateral ODA) in 2024, while humanitarian aid was USD 600 thousand, or 1.4% of gross bilateral ODA.
In 2024, Malta channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through the public sector and multilateral organisations.
In 2024, Malta’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on ODA-eligible countries in Europe and Middle East. USD 800 thousand was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 97.1% for Ukraine) and USD 800 thousand to countries in the Middle East, accounting respectively for 2.1% and 2% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 700 thousand was allocated to Africa. Countries in Europe were also the main regional recipient of Malta’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations.
In 2024, 5.3% of gross bilateral ODA went to Malta’s top 10 recipients. These recipients are mostly spread across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 93.3%, of which 69.1% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.
In 2024, Malta allocated 0.01% of its GNI to the least developed countries (LDCs). Malta allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (3.1%) to lower middle-income countries in 2024, noting that 93.3% was unallocated by income group. LDCs received 1.3% of Malta’s gross bilateral ODA (USD 500 thousand).
In 2025, Malta provided USD 1.3 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion, a 54.2% increase from 2024 in real terms. USD 100 thousand of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2025, a 40.6% increase in real terms from 2024.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 1.4 million in 2024, representing 3.6% of Malta’s gross bilateral ODA. Of this ODA, 25.9% was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, an increase from 23.7% in 2023, while 41.8% was allocated to peace, a decrease from 50.1% in 2023. Conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, represented 3.4% of gross bilateral ODA. Learn more about the States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, more than half of Malta’s bilateral ODA was allocated to refugees in donor countries (under other sectors), amounting to USD 24.7 million. Other investments under other sectors included general budget support (USD 600 thousand). ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 11.8 million, with a focus on government and civil society (USD 10.7 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to EUR 600 thousand (1.4% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations also focused on social sectors and other sectors in 2024.
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 Malta as TOSSD totalled USD 84.9 million, marking a 3% decrease compared with the previous year. Malta’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) and SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.
Development co-operation is overseen by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism and implemented in collaboration with governmental and non‑governmental partners. 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, and annually reported to the OECD.
CSOs 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 development co-operation providers at: 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.
Malta and the Gulf Region (2025) Regional Framework Policy: https://foreign.gov.mt/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GulfFrameworkPolicy-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 participated in the DAC WP-STAT meeting in 2025.
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.