Development Co-operation Profiles: Thailand

Thailand has a long history of engaging in development co-operation, focusing on South-South co‑operation and training with its regional neighbours in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region and in triangular co-operation with several OECD countries. Thailand conducts its development co-operation through the Thailand International Co-operation Agency (TICA), under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Neighbouring Countries Economic Development Cooperation Agency (NEDA), under the Ministry of Finance. Thailand brings to the ASEAN region its own experience of transitioning from a significant recipient of aid to a regional donor. Thailand’s total official development assistance (ODA) was USD 67.9 million in 2023, which was a decrease from 2022, and represented 0.01% of gross national income (GNI) in 2023.

Thailand’s profile is based on the most recent data available reported in 2023 on 2022 data, and preliminary 2023 figures reported in 2024. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.

Policy

Thailand’s current development co-operation priorities are based on the National Strategy (2018 - 2037), and the 13th National Economic and Social Development Plan 2023-2027, which aims to transform Thailand towards “Advancement and Sustainable Value-Creation Country” covering five key targets: 1) becoming a technology and innovation-driven economy; 2) empowering all Thais to reach their full potential; 3) creating a society of opportunities and fairness; 4) ensuring environmental sustainability; and 5) advancing preparations to deal with changing global economic and social environments. Additionally, Thailand’s development co-operation also follows the 20-year Foreign Affairs Masterplan, with its five key strategic priorities: 1) security; 2) sustainability; 3) standard; 4) status; and 5) synergy. Thailand aims to promote a green and sustainable economy, aiming for a balanced, inclusive and sustainable growth by embracing the Bio‑Circular-Green Economy Model to complement the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy as Thailand’s development approach. Its priority themes include public health, agriculture and food security, and climate change.

Thailand delivers its development co-operation mainly through TICA. Its development co-operation focuses on ensuring human security in four areas: 1) health security; 2) job security; 3) food security; and 4) energy and environmental security. It implements various development co-operation projects, including human resource development projects in the form of trainings, postgraduate scholarships, fellowships and study visits to partner countries. In addition, NEDA provides concessional loans, mostly to connectivity projects.

ODA allocation overview

Thailand provided USD 67.9 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2023 (USD 65.1 million in constant terms), representing 0.01% of GNI. This was a decrease of 0.8% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2022. Despite a slight decrease in 2021-22, Thailand’s ODA volume has consistently increased over the past ten years. Within Thailand’s ODA portfolio in 2022, 79.3% was provided in the form of grants and 20.7% in the form of non-grants.1

 

 

Thailand: Performance against commitments and DAC Recommendations

Description	Target	2021	2022	2023, preliminary
ODA as a share of GNI (%)		0.01	0.01	0.01
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.01	0.01
Grant element of total ODA (%)	>86	92.4	91.4

Note: This table only includes information about ODA data-related DAC Recommendations. ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income.

Thailand provided almost all of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 89.1% of total ODA disbursements. A share of 5.8% was provided through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Thailand allocated 10.9% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

ODA to and through the multilateral system

In 2022, Thailand provided USD 11.6 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, a fall of 33.5% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 7.8 million was core multilateral ODA, while USD 3.7 million were 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 25.8% of Thailand’s non-core contributions and 74.2% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

Seventy-four per cent of Thailand’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to United Nations (UN) entities and other multilateral organisations, such as the ASEAN Secretariat. The World Bank Group and regional development banks received 18.1% of Thailand’s ODA to multilateral organisations.

 

The UN system received 46.7% of Thailand’s multilateral contributions, mostly through core contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 5.4 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Thailand’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the United Nations Development Programme (USD 1.5 million), the Food and Agriculture Organization (USD 1.4 million) and the International Labour Organization (USD 1.2 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 about multilateral development finance.

Bilateral ODA

In 2022, Thailand’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 64 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 8.4% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, country programmable aid was 94% of Thailand’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to a non-DAC country average of 47%.

 

Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA

In 2022, Thailand’s bilateral ODA was primarily focused on South and East Asia. USD 51.3 million was allocated to East Asia and USD 8.8 to South Asia, accounting respectively for 80% and 13.7% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 791 thousand was allocated to Africa and USD 200 thousand to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 99.6% was for Ukraine). Asia was also the main regional recipient of Thailand’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations. This is mostly in line with Thailand’s overall regional focus.

Thailand: Bilateral ODA by recipient country

Gross disbursements, USD million, current prices

In 2022, 93.2% of gross bilateral ODA went to Thailand’s top 10 recipients. Its top 10 recipients are in Southeast Asia (ASEAN member countries) and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 4.3%.

 

 

In 2022, Thailand allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (91.7%) to least developed countries, noting that 4.3% was unallocated by income group. Additionally, Thailand allocated 74.5% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 47.7 million.

 

In 2022, Thailand provided USD 200 thousand of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

 

Responding to fragility

Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility reached USD 58.2 million in 2022, representing 90.8% of Thailand’s gross bilateral ODA. Almost one-third of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, increasing from 0.2% in 2021. Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.

Sectors

In 2022, more than half of Thailand’s bilateral ODA was allocated to economic infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 79.2% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 67 million), primarily in support of transport and storage (USD 66.5 million). ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 8.2 million, focusing on health and population (USD 5.7 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted USD 1 million (1.2%) in 2022.

 

Other policy objectives

In 2022, Thailand committed USD 67.5 million (79.8% of its bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy in 2022.

Effectiveness of development co-operation

The 4th global monitoring round of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) (2023-26) is underway, and Thailand is participating in the exercise as a development partner. Information on partner countries’ participation, progress and results, including a mid-term observations brief, is available at the Global Dashboard.

Total Official Support for Sustainable Development

Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) is an international statistical standard that monitors all official and officially supported resources for financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries, as well as for addressing global challenges. In 2022, activities reported by Thailand as TOSSD totalled USD 78.5 million, up from USD 58.5 million in 2021, and Thailand’s TOSSD activities in support of sustainable development mostly target SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals). Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for Thailand’s bilateral and multilateral development co‑operation policies. Its Department of International Organisations also contributes to international organisations, such as the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank.

Thailand’s main implementing bodies of development co-operation are TICA under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NEDA under the Ministry of Finance. TICA, established in 2004, succeeded the former Department of Technical and Economic Cooperation, which previously managed incoming aid. TICA is in charge of technical co-operation with countries globally, whereas NEDA, established in 2005, covers financial and technical co-operation at a regional level.

Furthermore, 17 line ministries (including education, health and transport) provide grants for bilateral projects and contribute to some multilateral organisations. The Export-Import Bank, under the Minister of Finance, offers concessional loans to developing countries, which are linked to the provision of goods and services from Thai companies.

 

Other profiles

Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.

Additional resources

Thailand International Development Cooperation Agency (TICA): https://tica-thaigov.mfa.go.th/en

Neighbouring Countries Economic Development Cooperation Agency (NEDA): https://www.neda.or.th/2023/en/home

Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ 20-year Foreign Affairs Masterplan (2018-2037): https://image.mfa.go.th/mfa/0/mkKfL2iULZ/%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3/mfa-s-strategy.pdf

OECD, Development co-operation Systems in Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam: www.oecd.org/dac/2022-south-east-asian-dev-coop-providers.pdf?utm_source=email-outreach&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=seadevproviders&utm_content=en&utm_term=dcd

Thailand has reported to the OECD at the aggregate level since 2006, and at the activity-level data since 2023 for 2022 activities.

Thailand is an Adherent to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. Learn more about OECD legal instruments and DAC Recommendations.

Thailand expressed interest in becoming a participant to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

Thailand participated in the 2025 DAC High Level Meeting.

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 aid, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.

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Note

← 1.  Non-grants include sovereign loans, multilateral loans, equity investment and loans to the private sector.