Development Co‑operation Profiles: Switzerland
Table of contents
Switzerland’s development co-operation combines long-term engagement in fragile contexts with a strong humanitarian and peace focus alongside significant support to civil society. It plays an active role in multilateral organisations to address global challenges, deliver emergency relief, and promote sustainable and climate-resilient development. Switzerland’s total official development assistance (ODA) (USD 4.6 billion, preliminary data) decreased in 2025, representing 0.46% of gross national income (GNI).
This profile presents verified data on Switzerland’s development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Switzerland’s International Cooperation Strategy 2025-2028 identifies four objectives: 1) saving lives and supporting access to high-quality basic services; 2) contributing to sustainable economic development and the creation of decent jobs; 3) guaranteeing environmentally friendly and climate-resilient development; and 4) promoting peace and human rights and strengthening democracy and the rule of law. Within this strategy, Switzerland’s priority regions remain sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa, with a stronger focus on Ukraine.
Switzerland sees its multilateral engagement as an important pillar of its development co-operation to address global and regional development challenges, including climate change, fragility, emergency relief and the integration of developing countries into the global economy. Switzerland uses multilateral partnerships to deliver emergency relief and encourage more pro-climate private sector investment in developing countries.
The 2025 OECD-DAC Peer Review praised Switzerland for the focus of its support to long-term and complex projects, its progress on fragility, its advanced system for measuring results, and the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation’s responsible phasing-out of bilateral co-operation in Latin America and the Caribbean. The review recommended increasing the share of ODA allocated to least developed countries (LDCs) and ensuring a poverty focus consistently informs all programmes. The review stressed the importance of strengthening the management of human resources to attract and retain staff in fragile contexts and nurture thematic expertise. It also recommended increasing linkages across private sector instruments and ensuring ODA is untied. The Peer Review found that Switzerland had fully or partially implemented 12 of the 14 recommendations of the 2019 Peer Review.
Discover insights from Switzerland’s 2022 mid-term review, and learn from Switzerland’s practices in Development Co-operation Tools Insights Practices.
Switzerland provided USD 4.6 billion (preliminary data) of ODA in 2025 (USD 4.3 billion in constant terms), representing 0.46% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 7.1% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2024. Switzerland’s total ODA has been on an upward trend since 2020, although recent decreases. Since 2021, Switzerland had been meeting its domestic objective of a 0.5% ODA/GNI ratio, which is lower than its international commitment to achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio by 2030. However, the budget envelope for 2025-28 will reduce the ODA/GNI ratio to 0.41%, or 0.36% excluding in-donor refugee costs, by 2028. Total ODA on a grant-equivalent basis has the same value as net ODA under the cash-flow methodology used in the past, as Switzerland provides only grants.
In 2025, Switzerland ranked 13th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members in terms of ODA volume and 7th when ODA is taken as a share of GNI. In 2024, Switzerland was among the DAC members that channelled the highest share of its bilateral ODA support to and through civil society organisations (CSOs) (28.2%). In 2024, Switzerland was the second-largest DAC member in terms of the share of gross bilateral ODA disbursements to fragile contexts given for peace (23.3%).
Switzerland 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.
Switzerland provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2024. Gross bilateral ODA was 79.1% of total ODA disbursements. Of this, 20.9% was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, Switzerland provided USD 1.7 billion of gross ODA to the multilateral system, a fall of 11% in real terms from 2023. Of this, USD 968.7 million was core multilateral ODA (20.9% of total ODA), while USD 767.6 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 37.3% of Switzerland’s non-core contributions, and 62.7% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).
In 2024, top recipients of Switzerland’s contribution to multilateral organisations were the World Bank Group and the United Nations (UN) system. The UN system received 42.3% of Switzerland’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 479 million (65.2%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 734.9 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Switzerland’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the United Nations Development Programme (USD 109.9 million), the World Food Programme (USD 89.2 million) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (USD 69.2 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, Switzerland’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 3.7 billion of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 15.3% in real terms from 2023.
In 2024, country programmable aid amounted to USD 1.4 billion, or 37% of Switzerland’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 46.5%.
Switzerland’s in-donor refugee costs amounted to USD 1.2 billion (31.3% of gross bilateral ODA) in 2024, while humanitarian aid was USD 489.8 million, or 14.4% of gross bilateral ODA.
In 2024, Switzerland channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through public sector, non-governmental organisations and multilateral organisations. Technical co-operation made up 2.1% of gross ODA in 2024.
In 2024, CSOs received USD 1 billion of gross bilateral ODA, of which 12.5% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 8% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 20.2% was channelled through CSOs to implement projects initiated by the provider (earmarked funding). From 2023 to 2024, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs increased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 27.3% to 28.2%.
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, Switzerland’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on countries in Africa. USD 716.1 million was allocated to countries in Africa and USD 365.9 million to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 56.6% was for Ukraine), accounting respectively for 19.5% and 10% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 360.5 million was allocated to Asia (excluding the Middle East). Countries in Africa were also the main recipient of Switzerland’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, in line with the policy priorities of its overall strategy.
In 2024, 15.4% of gross bilateral ODA went to Switzerland’s top 10 recipients. Its top 10 recipients are in priority countries including Ukraine, and fragile contexts in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 57.9%, of which 54.1% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.
In 2024, Switzerland allocated 0.12% of its GNI to the LDCs. Switzerland allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (17.9%) to least developed countries in 2024, noting that 57.9% was unallocated by income group. Additionally, Switzerland allocated 12% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2024, equal to USD 441 million.
The distribution of Switzerland’s ODA in net terms in relation to “ODA per person in extreme poverty”2 was USD 1.1 in the LDCs, USD 1.3 in lower middle-income countries and USD 3.2 in upper middle-income countries.
In 2025, Switzerland provided USD 284.4 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion, a 33.6% increase from 2024 in real terms. USD 26.2 million of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2025, a 18.7% increase in real terms from 2024.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 801.6 million in 2024, representing 21.8% of Switzerland’s gross bilateral ODA. Of this ODA, 28.2% was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, a decrease from 35.7% in 2023, while 23.3% was allocated to peace, an increase from 21.2% in 2023. Conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, represented 4% of gross bilateral ODA, decreasing from 4.1% in 2023.
Learn more about the States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the largest focus of Switzerland’s bilateral ODA was other macro sectors, in particular support refugees in donor countries (USD 1.1 billion). The administrative costs of donors amounted to USD 220.3 million. ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 1.1 billion, with a focus on government and civil society (USD 584.7 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 489.8 million (14.4% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations also focused on social sectors and other macro sectors in 2024.
In the period 2023-2024, Switzerland committed 66.2% of screened bilateral allocable ODA to gender equality and women’s empowerment compared to 70.8% in 2021-2022 and a DAC average of 48.2% in 2023-2024. This is equal to USD 1.5 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 3.2% in 2023-2024, compared with the DAC average of 4.2%.
Switzerland includes gender equality objectives in 52.3% of ODA for humanitarian aid, above the 2023-2024 DAC average of 21.5%.
Switzerland screens all bilateral allocable ODA against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2023-2024).
Switzerland committed USD 18.3 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls, and USD 14 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, Switzerland committed 22.7% of its total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 517.9 million) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, down from 33.3% in 2021-2022. The DAC average was 39%. In addition:
4.9% of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 11.2%.
20.4% of total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 464.4 million) focused on climate change overall (the DAC average was 35.4%), down from 29.6% in 2021-2022. Switzerland had a greater focus on adaptation (16.5%) than on mitigation (12.5%) in 2023-2024.
5.7% of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 131 million) focused on biodiversity overall (the DAC average was 8.6%), down from 8.6% in 2021-2022.
2.5% of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 56.3 million) focused on desertification overall (the DAC average was 4.2%), down from 3.9% 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 Switzerland committed USD 5.9 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2024, USD 2.5 million more than in 2023. The 2024 value is equivalent to 0.3% of Switzerland’s bilateral allocable ODA.
In 2024, Switzerland:
Allocated 7.2% of its bilateral ODA (USD 265.3 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, 0.5% of bilateral ODA (USD 18.5 million) went to social protection support. Learn more by exploring the Reducing poverty and inequalities through ODA data explainer.
Committed USD 324 million (16% 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 agriculture, forestry and fishing.
Committed USD 125.8 million (6.2% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to development co-operation projects and programmes that promote the inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities.
Committed USD 5.8 million (0.3% 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, Switzerland generally seeks exemptions and makes this information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.
Committed USD 232 million (11.5% 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 Switzerland to developing countries amounted to USD 5.2 billion in net terms. Official sources accounted for USD 4.3 billion while USD 947.3 million originated from private sources.
To help build markets in developing countries and incentivise greater mobilisation of private resources for development, many providers, including Switzerland, have established development finance institutions and similar vehicles that extend private sector instruments (PSI). The Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM), the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs’ (SECO) Start-Up Fund and the SDC PSI Programmes were assessed as ODA-eligible PSI vehicles. PSI represented 0.6% of Switzerland’s ODA in 2024 while the DAC average stood at 1.9%.
In 2024, SIFEM, SECO Start-Up Fund and SDC PSI Programmes extended USD 123.7 million in the form of PSI to developing countries.3 Of this, loans accounted for 27.4% whereas equities accounted for 72.6%.
In 2024, USD 23.5 million (19%) of Switzerland’s private sector instruments were allocated to the LDCs and other low-income countries (LICs). By contrast, 25.6% was received by middle-income countries, notably lower middle-income countries (21.8%). USD 68.6 million was unallocated by income. Switzerland’s PSI primarily supported projects in the industry, mining, construction (42.6%) and banking and financial services (30%) sectors.
Switzerland uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2024, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation and SIFEM mobilised USD 205 million from the private sector through shares in collective investment vehicles, direct investment in companies and special purpose vehicles and simple co-financing. This constituted a 5% increase compared to 2023.
Private finance mobilised by Switzerland in 2023-2024 mainly targeted middle-income countries, representing 4.9% of its total mobilised. Only 2% of total mobilised private finance during this period benefited the LDCs and other LICs, noting that 93.1% was unallocated by income.
Mobilised private finance by Switzerland in 2023-2024 related mainly to activities in energy (40%), as its top sector. Furthermore, over this period, 78.2% of Switzerland’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 Switzerland as TOSSD totalled USD 4.9 billion, marking a 37% decrease compared with the previous year.4 Switzerland’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals).
Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.
Three institutions share responsibility for Switzerland’s development co-operation: the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); the Division of Peace and Human Rights within the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs; and the Economic Cooperation and Development Division of SECO within the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research. Every four years, the Swiss parliament adopts its Dispatch on International Cooperation, which sets strategic objectives for the country’s development and humanitarian assistance. The latest dispatch was approved in 2024 for the period 2025-2028. A “Fit for Purpose” restructuring process took place within the SDC in 2022, and the institution is now divided into three geographical divisions, one thematic division, one multilateral division, one humanitarian division, and one division responsible for transversal dossiers and core processes. The consultative Interdepartmental Committee for International Development and Cooperation (IKEZ) brings together various departments aiming at informing and co-ordinating international co-operation policy. The Swiss Federal Audit Office regularly assesses aspects of Swiss co-operation; for instance, it published a report on development co-operation in vocational and professional education and training in 2024.
In total, there are around 1 877 full-time equivalents (FTE) working in international co-operation, most of whom are local staff (around 1 000 FTE).
Switzerland has a consultative and consensus-based system of government, and the preparation of the Strategy for 2025-2028 involved broad public consultation. Several CSOs active in development co‑operation, humanitarian assistance and global citizenship education co-ordinate under the umbrella body, Alliance Sud.
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 Switzerland’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 Switzerland: https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/19/en/pdf.
2019 OECD-DAC Peer Review of Switzerland: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264312340-en.
CSO umbrella organisation Alliance Sud: https://www.alliancesud.ch/en.
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC): https://www.eda.admin.ch/sdc.
State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO): https://www.seco.admin.ch/seco/en/home/Aussenwirtschaftspolitik_Wirtschaftliche_Zusammenarbeit/Wirtschaftliche_Zusammenarbeit_Entwicklung.html.
Switzerland has been a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1968.
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. 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 Switzerland.