Development Co‑operation Profiles: Norway
Table of contents
Norway’s development programme focuses on climate change and renewable energy, global health, gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights, food security, reducing inequality, and humanitarian assistance. Norway is committed to spending 1% of gross national income (GNI) as international support for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), placing it among the Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) most generous providers of official development assistance (ODA). Norway’s total ODA (USD 5.7 billion, preliminary data) increased in 2025, representing 1.03% of GNI – the highest ODA/GNI ratio among DAC members.
This profile presents verified data on Norway’s development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Norway recognises that achieving the SDGs is a shared responsibility, a principle that underpins its approach to development co-operation. Norway’s development policy focuses on climate change and renewable energy, global health, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, food security, reducing inequality, emphasising private sector development, job creation, tax collection, and public services and welfare systems. Norway also continues to play an important role in supporting peace and reconciliation processes globally, supporting the global humanitarian system and upholding international humanitarian law. In 2026, a new white paper guiding Norwegian development co-operation is under development. The Strategy for Norwegian Engagement with African Countries also continues to guide Norway’s efforts in several key partner countries.
Reflecting its strong commitment to multilateralism, Norway channels a significant share of its core support to the multilateral system via the United Nations (UN) and multilateral development banks. Norway’s development policy recognises that development covers far more than just ODA and prioritises efforts to strengthen international co-operation on tax, anti-corruption and reducing illicit financial flows.
The 2022 OECD-DAC mid-term review highlighted Norway’s efforts to embed key institutional reforms aimed at ensuring its system is fit to deliver effective development co-operation. Quality assurance has been mainstreamed across thematic departments in the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), reflecting a thematic portfolio approach, and Norway is strengthening its results-based management and learning. The mid-term review encouraged Norway to continue strategic workforce planning, support robust public debate and action on policy coherence challenges, and continue building staff capacities on conflict sensitivity in programmes. It noted that Norway had taken steps to address 11 of the 12 recommendations from the last Peer Review.
Discover insights from Norway’s 2022 mid-term review and 2019 Peer Review, and learn from Norway’s practices in Development Co-operation Tools Insights Practices. Norway is currently undergoing an OECD-DAC Peer Review in 2026.
Norway provided USD 5.7 billion (preliminary data) of ODA in 2025 (USD 5.3 billion in constant terms), representing 1.03% of GNI.1 This was an increase of 1.7% in real terms in volume and an increase in the share of GNI from 2024. Norway has consistently been among the top five most generous DAC providers since reaching the UN target in 1976. It continues to meet its domestic and international commitment to a 1% ODA/GNI ratio. Within Norway’s ODA portfolio in 2024, 100% was provided in the form of grants. Total ODA on a grant-equivalent basis has the same value as net ODA under the cash-flow methodology used in the past.
In 2025, Norway ranked 11th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members in terms of ODA volume and 1st when ODA is taken as a share of GNI. In 2024, Norway is among DAC members that met the UN commitment to allocate 0.20% of GNI to LDCs, despite the share of gross bilateral ODA allocated to LDCs declining in 2024 compared to 2023. Norway also allocates among the highest share of ODA to support developing countries to mobilise their own domestic resources, ranking second amongst DAC members in 2024. Gender equality objectives are also included in a significantly higher share of Norway’s humanitarian aid (57.4%) compared to the DAC average (21.5%). Private sector instruments (PSI) represented 5.3% of Norway’s ODA, above the DAC average at 1.9%.
Norway 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.
Norway provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2024. Gross bilateral ODA was 79% of total ODA disbursements. Of this, 43.3% was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, Norway provided USD 2.7 billion of gross ODA to the multilateral system, a fall of 7.8% in real terms from 2023. Of this, USD 1 billion was core multilateral ODA (21% of total ODA), while USD 1.7 billion 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 14.5% of Norway’s non‑core contributions, and 85.5% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).
The United Nations (UN) system received 51.2% of Norway’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 958.4 million (68.8%) represented earmarked contributions. Of a total volume of USD 1.4 billion to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Norway’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the United Nations Development Programme (USD 215.1 million), World Food Programme (USD 159.1 million) and United Nations Children’s Fund (USD 151.9 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 DAC members’ use of the multilateral system dashboard.
In 2024, Norway’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 3.9 billion of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 7.5% in real terms from 2023.
In 2024, country programmable aid amounted to USD 1.7 billion, or 43.6% of Norway’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 46.5%.
Norway’s in-donor refugee costs amounted to USD 371.8 million (9.5% of gross bilateral ODA) in 2024, while humanitarian aid was USD 544.3 million, or 17.7% of gross bilateral ODA.
Norway disbursed USD 23.5 million for triangular co-operation in 2024. Norway is a member of the Global Partnership Initiative (GPI) on Effective Triangular Co-operation. Its regional priority is Africa, with a focus on education.
Learn more about triangular co-operation.
In 2024, Norway channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through multilateral organisations, non‑governmental organisations and the public sector. Technical co-operation made up 2.3% of gross ODA in 2024.
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 1 billion of gross bilateral ODA, of which 6.4% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 5.7% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 20.6% 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 decreased slightly as a share of bilateral ODA, from 27.6% to 26.3%.
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, Norway’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on ODA-eligible countries in Europe. USD 913.4 million was allocated to countries in Europe (of which 91.7% for Ukraine) and USD 789.3 million to countries in Africa, accounting respectively for 23.5% and 20.3% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 300.3 million was allocated to the Middle East. Europe was also the main regional recipient of Norway’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations. This stronger focus on Europe compared to Africa marks a shift from previous years and reflects Norway’s strong focus on Ukraine following the Russian Federation’s large-scale war of aggression from 2022.
In 2024, 38% of gross bilateral ODA went to Norway’s top 10 recipients. Norway's top 10 recipients reflect its increased allocations to Ukraine since 2022 and strong focus on climate finance and contexts where it engages in post-conflict stabilisation and conflict prevention activities. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 44.5%, of which 21.4% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.
In 2024, Norway allocated 0.21% of its GNI to the least developed countries (LDCs). Norway allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (25.5%) to lower middle-income countries in 2024, noting that 44.5% was unallocated by income group. LDCs received 16.5% of Norway’s gross bilateral ODA (USD 640.9 million). Additionally, Norway allocated 10.3% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2024, equal to USD 402 million.
The distribution of Norway’s ODA in net terms in relation to “ODA per person in extreme poverty”2 was USD 1.1 in LDCs, USD 2.2 in lower middle-income countries (LMICs) and USD 4.5 in upper middle-income countries.
In 2025, Norway provided USD 1.1 billion of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion, a 22.5% increase from 2024 in real terms. USD 255.7 million of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2025, a 0.6% increase in real terms from 2024.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 911.8 million in 2024, representing 23.4% of Norway’s gross bilateral ODA. Of this ODA, 32.1% was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, a decrease from 37.1% in 2023, while 18% was allocated to peace, an increase from 16% in 2023. Conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, represented 5.9% of gross bilateral ODA, increasing from 5% in 2023.
Learn more about the States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the largest sectoral focus of Norway’s bilateral ODA was social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 30.3% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 932.3 million), particularly support to government and civil society (USD 451.3 million), education (USD 231.7 million) and health and population (USD 144.2 million). ODA for other macro sectors totalled USD 595.9 million, with a focus on refugees in donor countries (USD 368.9 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 544.3 million (17.7% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations also focused on social sectors and economic sectors in 2024.
In the period 2023-2024, Norway committed 54.2% of screened bilateral allocable ODA to gender equality and women’s empowerment compared to 38.8% in 2021-2022 and a DAC average of 48.2% in 2023-2024. This is equal to USD 1.9 billion 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 7.2% in 2023-2024, compared with the DAC average of 4.2%.
Norway includes gender equality objectives in 57.4% of ODA for humanitarian aid, well above the 2023-2024 DAC average of 21.5%.
Norway screens all bilateral allocable ODA against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2023-2024).
Norway committed USD 34 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls, and USD 23 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, Norway committed 38.8% of its total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 1.3 billion) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, up from 32.1% in 2021-2022. The DAC average was 39%. In addition:
16.4% of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 11.2%.
31.9% of total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 1.1 billion) focused on climate change overall (the DAC average was 35.4%), up from 28.9% in 2021-2022. Norway had a greater focus on mitigation (21%) than on adaptation (15.9%) in 2023-2024.
17.3% of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 598.4 million) focused on biodiversity overall (the DAC average was 8.6%), up from 13.8% in 2021-2022.
3.4% of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 118.3 million) focused on desertification overall (the DAC average was 4.2%), up from 1.4% 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 Norway committed USD 57.8 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2024, USD 117.9 million less than in 2023. The 2024 value is equivalent to 2.3% of Norway’s bilateral allocable ODA.
In 2024, Norway:
Allocated 5.7% of its bilateral ODA (USD 223.4 million) to core poverty-reducing sectors as defined by 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, 0.6% of Norway’s bilateral ODA (USD 23.7 million) went to social protection support. Learn more by exploring the Reducing poverty and inequalities through ODA data explainer.
Committed USD 524.3 million (21.1% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to development co-operation projects and programmes that promote the inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities.
Committed USD 39.6 million (1.6% 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, Norway rarely or never requests exemptions, in accordance with its policy since 2017. It makes this information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.
Committed USD 488.8 million (19.7% 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 Norway to developing countries amounted to USD 11.8 billion in net terms. Official sources accounted for USD 5.3 billion, while USD 6.5 billion originated from private sources.
To help build markets in developing countries and incentivise greater mobilisation of private resources for development, many providers, including Norway, have established development finance institutions and similar vehicles that extend private sector instruments (PSI). The Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund) was assessed as an ODA-eligible PSI vehicle. PSI represented 5.3% of Norway’s ODA in 2024 while the DAC average stood at 1.9%.
In 2024, Norfund extended USD 638 million in the form of PSI to developing countries.3 Of this, loans accounted for 37% whereas equities accounted for 35.9%. Other private sector instruments included grants, mezzanine finance instruments.
In 2024, USD 23.4 million (3.7%) of Norway’s private sector instruments were allocated to the LDCs and other low-income countries (LICs). By contrast, 47.1% was received by middle-income countries, notably upper middle-income countries (24.3%). USD 314.3 million was unallocated by income. Norway’s PSI primarily supported projects in the banking and financial services (43.5%) and energy (37.3%) sectors.
Norway uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2024, Norfund mobilised USD 721.2 million from the private sector through direct investment in companies and special purpose vehicles, shares in collective investment vehicles, credit lines and syndicated loans. This constituted a 94.8% increase compared to 2023.
Private finance mobilised by Norway in 2023-2024 mainly targeted middle-income countries, representing 63.1% of its total mobilised finance. Only 7.1% of total mobilised private finance during this period benefited the LDCs and other low-income countries (LICs), noting that 29.8% was unallocated by income.
Private finance mobilised by Norway in 2023-2024 related mainly to activities in energy (75.9%), as its top sector. Furthermore, over this period, 77.5% of Norway’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 Norway as TOSSD totalled USD 5.6 billion, marking an 8% decrease compared with the previous year.4 Norway’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) and SDG 13 (climate action).
Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.
The administration and delivery of Norway’s development co-operation is largely shared between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and Norad, with the involvement of other key ministries and agencies. The MFA is responsible for policymaking and governance while Norad is responsible for implementing and managing most ODA grants, both humanitarian aid and long-term development assistance. Norfund is Norway’s development finance institution. The Ministry of Climate and Environment is responsible for Norway’s International Climate and Forests Initiative. The Office of the Auditor General undertakes studies and publishes reports on the performance of Norway’s development co-operation efforts, including a recent report on development assistance for climate change adaptation in developing countries (2025).
Norway’s MFA has 1 350 Norwegian and 1 150 local staff, for a total of 2 500. Among the Norwegian staff, 41% work on development. Of the total number of staff (both Norwegian and local), 32% are based in Norway and 68% are based in country offices and embassies abroad. Norad has 335 staff (including full- and part-time staff), all based in Norway. The Norwegian Agency for Exchange Cooperation has 57 staff. By the end of 2024, Norfund had 157 staff, of which 109 were based in Norway and 48 abroad.
Norad hosts an annual conference bringing together key Norwegian and international stakeholders on different themes. The 2026 Norad Conference – “Peace Out?” – focused on war, conflict prevention and how Norway’s development co-operation can help build a more peaceful world. CSOs active in development co‑operation and humanitarian assistance co-ordinate under umbrella organisations, in particular, the Norwegian Forum for Development and Environment and the Forum for Women and Development. The RORG-Network is a network of Norwegian non-governmental organisations engaged in development education and awareness raising in Norway.
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 Norway’s development co-operation. The table below highlights select features.
Access the full list of development co-operation providers at: Development Co-operation Profiles.
2022 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Norway: https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/14/en/pdf.
2019 OECD-DAC Peer Review of Norway: https://doi.org/10.1787/75084277-en.
Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI): https://www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/climate-and-environment/climate/climate-and-forest-initiative/id2000712.
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad): https://norad.no/en/front.
Norwegian Agency for Exchange Cooperation (Norec): https://www.norec.no/en/home.
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA): https://www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/foreign-affairs/id919.
Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund): https://www.norfund.no.
Norway has been a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1962.
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.
← 3. 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.
← 4. This amount does not include mobilised private finance by Norway.