Development Co‑operation Profiles

Germany

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Introduction

Germany is the Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) second-largest development co-operation provider. Bilateral co-operation constitutes the bulk of Germany’s official development assistance (ODA) under the overall lead of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). At the same time, the Federal Foreign Office oversees humanitarian aid, crisis prevention, stabilisation and peace-building. Germany’s total ODA (USD 36.7 billion, preliminary data) decreased in 2023, representing 0.79% of gross national income (GNI).

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

BMZ’s priority areas in A World in Transition are providing global health and sexual and reproductive rights, reducing poverty, hunger and inequality, forging ahead with the just transition, and embracing a feminist development policy. Germany is known for its co-operation agencies GIZ and KfW, which deliver on government-to-government co-operation.

In its multilateral engagement, the European Union (EU) is one of Germany’s key partners, as Germany provides 21% of the European Union’s budget. Effectiveness and adequate resourcing are priorities for its partnership with the United Nations (UN) system. Internationally, Germany promotes global public goods such as global health and the fight against climate change. In December 2023, Germany adopted its first-ever climate foreign policy strategy, reiterating its existing climate finance target of EUR 6 billion annually by 2025. It also advocates for fair and sustainable globalisation, including in the Group of Seven (G7) and G20.

Poverty and inequality reduction focus

BMZ’s 2030 Reform Strategy cites overcoming hunger and poverty as the primary aim of German development co-operation. Among the quality criteria that should apply to all programmes, BMZ identifies poverty and inequality reduction, as well as human rights, gender equality and disability inclusion. Germany approaches poverty and inequality reduction in a multidimensional way. It placed increased attention on vertical and horizontal inequalities, as reflected in the 2023 position paper: Less Inequality, More Opportunities for Sustainable Development. GIZ has developed several tools to mainstream poverty and inequalities in development co-operation, including a dedicated poverty marker.

Findings from OECD-DAC reviews

The 2021 OECD-DAC peer review praised Germany for investing in fair and sustainable globalisation and a rules-based multilateral order. It highlighted the country’s broad range of instruments, illustrated by Germany’s leadership in the provision of climate insurance products. The review found that Germany could be more systematic in addressing the spillover effects of its policies on developing countries. It also encouraged greater investment in gender equality, leaving no one behind and embedding a culture of results. The peer review found that Germany had fully or partially implemented all 14 recommendations of the 2015 peer review. Learn more about Germany’s 2021 OECD-DAC peer review.

ODA allocation overview

Germany provided USD 36.7 billion (preliminary data) of ODA in 2023 (USD 33.6 billion in constant terms), representing 0.79% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 5.8% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2022. Having reached 0.7% of GNI for the first time in 2016, Germany has surpassed this mark every year since 2020. Germany is delivering on its domestic and EU commitments to collectively achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio by 2030. Within Germany’s ODA portfolio in 2022, 82.5% was provided in the form of grants and 17.5% in the form of non-grants.2

Germany is the second-largest DAC member in terms of ODA volume and the fourth most generous member country relative to the size of its economy in 2023. In 2022, Germany had the highest ODA commitments in support of the environment amongst DAC members (USD 11.3 billion) and the largest ODA volume both for conflict prevention (USD 354 million) and for triangular co-operation (USD 37.2 million). The increase of in-donor refugee costs in 2022 means that shares of bilateral ODA allocated to other areas may have decreased from 2021 to 2022, even if absolute volumes have not.

 

Notes: Data on official development assistance (ODA) volumes (figure above) are in constant 2022 prices. Data for 2023 are preliminary. See the methodological notes for further details.

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Germany is committed to several international targets and Development Assistance Committee standards and recommendations. Learn more about DAC recommendations.

Performance against commitments and DAC recommendations

Description	Target	2021	2022	2023, preliminary
ODA as a share of GNI (%)	0.7	0.76	0.85	0.79
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.15	0.12
Share of untied ODA covered by the DAC Recommendation	100	100	100
Share of untied ODA (All sectors and countries beyond the scope of the Untying Recommendation) (%)		82.4	86.8
Grant element of total ODA (%)	>86	90.7	87.2

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

Germany provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 81.8% of total ODA disbursements. Thirty-one per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Germany allocated 18.2% of the total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA for Ukraine

Germany has not yet reported preliminary estimates of its aid to Ukraine in 2023 to the OECD. Therefore, the Secretariat has applied an estimate of this aid at USD 2.2 billion in 2023, the same as the previous year (adjusted for inflation), of which USD 387 million was humanitarian aid.

 

Note: The amount reported in 2023 is an estimate, based on preliminary figures reported to the OECD and published in April 2024.

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ODA to and through the multilateral system

In 2022, Germany provided USD 17.6 billion of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 21.5% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 7.3 billion was core multilateral ODA, while USD 10.3 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 59.7% of Germany’s non-core contributions, and 40.3% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Sixty per cent of Germany’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to EU Institutions and the UN system.

 

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The UN system received 34.7% of Germany’s multilateral contributions, of which USD 5.1 billion (83.9%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 6.1 billion to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Germany’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the WFP (USD 1.7 billion), UNICEF (USD 709.2 million) and UNDP (USD 613.6 million).

 

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See the section 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, Germany’s bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 32.9 billion of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 26.8% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, country programmable aid was 37.5% of Germany’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 42%. In-donor refugee costs were USD 4.8 billion in 2022, an increase of 88% in real terms over 2021, and represented 14.6% of Germany’s total gross bilateral ODA.

Germany disbursed USD 37.2 million for triangular co-operation in 2022 and has a new strategy for 2022 guiding its approach to the modality. Germany is a member of the Global Partnership Initiative (GPI) on Effective Triangular Co-operation. Its regional priority is Asia, with a focus on health. Learn more about triangular co-operation.

 

Note: NGO: non-governmental organisation.

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In 2022, Germany channelled bilateral ODA mainly through the public sector and multilateral organisations as earmarked funding. Technical co-operation made up 25.6% of gross ODA in 2022.

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 2 billion of gross bilateral ODA, of which 1.9% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 1.2% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 4.9% was channelled through CSOs to implement projects initiated by the donor (earmarked funding). From 2021 to 2022, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs decreased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 8% to 6.1%. Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.

 

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Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA

In 2022, Germany’s bilateral ODA was primarily focused on Africa. USD 5.9 billion was allocated to Africa and USD 4.6 billion to Asia, accounting for 18.1% and 14% of gross bilateral ODA, respectively. USD 3.2 billion was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 64% for Ukraine). Europe was the main regional recipient of Germany’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations.

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 23.8% of gross bilateral ODA went to Germany’s top 10 recipients. Its top 10 recipients are primarily middle-income countries in all regions of the world. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 54.1%, of which 27.1% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.

 

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In 2022, Germany allocated 0.12% of its GNI to the least developed countries (LDCs). Germany allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (19.9%) to lower middle income countries in 2022, noting that 54.1% was unallocated by income group. Least developed countries (LDCs) received 9.6% of Germany’s gross bilateral ODA (USD 3.1 billion). Additionally, Germany allocated 6.2% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 2 billion. Germany allocated 0.1% of gross bilateral ODA to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2022, equal to USD 33.7 million.

 

Note: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Fragile contexts

Support to fragile contexts was USD 5.1 billion in 2022, representing 15.4% of Germany’s gross bilateral ODA. Twenty-three per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, decreasing from 24.8% in 2021, while 11.8% was allocated to peace, decreasing from 13.6% in 2021. Seven per cent went to conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, which was the same in 2021. Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.

 

Note: HDP: humanitarian-development-peace. The chart represents only gross bilateral official development assistance that is allocated by country.

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Sectors

In 2022, the largest focus of Germany’s bilateral ODA was social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 31.7% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 10.8 billion), with a focus on education (USD 2.9 billion). It committed USD 2.4 billion for health and population in 2022, accounting for 7.1% of gross bilateral ODA, and representing a 166.1% increase from 2019 in real terms. ‘Other’ sectors accounted for 34.7% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 11.8 billion) with a strong focus on support to refugees in donor countries (USD 4.8 billion), other multisector (USD 4.4 billion) and general environment protection (USD 1.1 billion). ODA for economic infrastructure and services amounted to USD 6.2 billion (18.2% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations also focused on ‘other’ sectors and social sectors in 2022.

 

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ODA for COVID-19

In 2022, Germany disbursed USD 3.1 billion in ODA for the COVID-19 response, down from USD 3.9 billion in 2021. Regarding COVID-19 vaccines, Germany provided USD 178.7 million in ODA for donations of doses to developing countries in 2022, down 72.5% from USD 649 million in 2021. All COVID-19 vaccines accounted for donations of doses from domestic supply in 2022.

Gender equality

In the period 2021-22, Germany committed 45.9% of its screened bilateral allocable aid to gender equality and women’s empowerment, as either a principal or significant objective (up from 45.2% in 2019-20), compared with the 2021-22 DAC average of 43.3%. This is equal to USD 12.1 billion of bilateral ODA in support of gender equality. Unpacking the gender equality data further:

• The share of screened bilateral allocable aid committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment as a principal objective was 2.6% in 2021-22, compared with the DAC average of 3.9%.

• Germany includes gender equality objectives in 3.1% of its ODA for humanitarian aid, below the 2021-22 DAC average of 16.3%.

• Germany screens virtually all bilateral allocable aid activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (99.1% in 2021-22).

• Germany committed USD 50.4 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls and USD 58.8 million to support women’s rights organisations and movements and government institutions in 2021-22.

Learn more about Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls: DAC Guidance for Development Partners and the DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation in Development Co-operation.

 

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Environment

In 2021-22, Germany committed 45.2% of its total bilateral allocable aid (USD 11.3 billion) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions (the DAC average was 35.1%), up from 45% in 2019-20. Unpacking the environmental data further:

• Eleven per cent of screened bilateral allocable aid focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 11%.

• Forty per cent of total bilateral allocable aid (USD 9.9 billion) focused on climate change overall, up from 38.3% in 2019-20 (the DAC average was 30.5%). Germany had a greater focus on mitigation (27.6%) than on adaptation (24%) in 2021-22.

• Eleven per cent of screened bilateral allocable aid (USD 2.7 billion) focused on biodiversity overall, up from 10.8% in 2019-20 (the DAC average was 7.2%).

Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change [DAC/CHAIR(2021)1/FINAL].

 

Note: In this figure, the category climate includes climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation efforts.

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Performance against environment and Rio Markers, 2021-2022

Marker	Constant 2022 USD billion	% of bilateral allocable
Environment	9.3	37.9
Rio markers:
Biodiversity	2.7	10.9
Desertification	1.7	6.9
Climate change mitigation only	4	16
Climate change adaptation only	3.1	12.4
Both climate change mitigation and adaptation	2.8	11.1

Note: Individual Rio Markers should not be added up as this can result in double counting.

The OECD initiative Sustainable Oceans for All shows that Germany committed USD 251.3 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2022, USD 39.4 million more than in 2021. The 2022 value is equivalent to 1% of Germany’s bilateral allocable aid.

Other cross-cutting sectors and themes

In 2022, Germany also:

• Committed USD 57.8 million of bilateral ODA to the mobilisation of domestic resources in developing countries, amounting to 0.2% of its bilateral allocable aid. Regarding the payment of local tax and customs duties for ODA-funded goods and services, Germany generally requests exemptions and makes information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.

• Committed USD 8.1 billion (30.6% of its bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy. Germany is among the top 10 official providers of aid for trade globally.

• Committed USD 130.3 million (0.5% of its bilateral allocable aid) to address the immediate or underlying determinants of malnutrition in developing countries across a variety of sectors, such as health.

Mobilised private finance

Germany uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2022, BMZ, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, and KfW mobilised USD 833.7 million from the private sector through shares in CIVs, simple co-financing, credit lines, syndicated loans and direct investment in companies and SPVs. This constituted a 95.5% increase compared to 2021.

 

Note: CIV: collective investment vehicle; SPV: special purpose vehicle.

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A share of 43.2% targeted middle-income countries, while 6.2% went to LDCs and other low-income countries (LICs) in 2021-22, noting that 50.6% was unallocated by income.

 

Note: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Mobilised private finance by Germany in 2021-22 related mainly to activities in energy (38.5%), as its top sector. Furthermore, 57.9% of Germany’s total mobilised private finance over this period was for climate action.

Private sector instruments

In 2022, the German Investment Corporation (DEG), BMZ, and Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) extended USD 1.8 billion in the form of private sector instruments (PSI) to developing countries. Of this, loans accounted for 56.3%, whereas equities represented 43.7%.

 

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In 2022, USD 21.9 million (1.2%) of Germany’s private sector instruments were allocated to LDCs and other LICs, while a majority (60.5%) went to middle-income countries and UMICs in particular (36.7%). Moreover, USD 687.8 million were unallocated by income. Germany’s private sector instruments mostly supported projects in banking and financial services (49.4%) and energy (14.5%).

 

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Effectiveness of development co-operation

The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation monitoring exercise tracks the implementation of the effectiveness commitments. Following the reform of the exercise over 2020-22, the 4th global monitoring round (2023-26) is underway. Information on partner countries’ participation in the exercise, as well as their progress, is available at the Global Dashboard. Germany’s results of the 2016 and 2018 monitoring rounds can be found here.

To help improve the transparency of development co-operation, the OECD provides regular feedback to members on the overall quality of their statistical reporting and works with each member to ensure the data meet high-quality standards before they are published. Regarding DAC/CRS reporting to the OECD, Germany’s reporting in 2022 was late, with some areas to improve in terms of the completeness and accuracy of the data.

Institutional set-up

BMZ co-ordinates Germany’s development co-operation policy and oversees a large part of its ODA. A number of other federal ministries also manage ODA resources, including the Federal Foreign Office, which oversees humanitarian assistance, as well as crisis prevention, stabilisation and peacebuilding. Germany has two main implementing agencies: GIZ for technical co-operation; and KfW for financial co‑operation, comprising KfW Development Bank and the DEG (development finance institution). A number of federal states and municipalities also provide development co-operation. A dedicated Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development provides parliamentary oversight. The Federal Court of Audit regularly assesses aspects of development co-operation, such as evaluations in 2021.

BMZ has approximately 1 300 staff working on development co‐operation, plus 130 staff seconded to international organisations and the Federal Foreign Office, serving as embassies in partner countries. In addition, a number of Federal Foreign Office staff manage ODA funds, with the majority working in the Directorate General for Crisis Prevention, Stabilisation, Peace Building and Humanitarian Aid at headquarters, embassies and permanent representations worldwide. GIZ has approximately 7 600 international staff working on development, plus 17 800 locally hired staff. KfW has approximately 7 000 staff members, including staff serving abroad.

 

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The Engagement Global agency provides advice to civil society, private sector actors, local authorities and individuals who want to engage in development co-operation. CSOs active in development co-operation, humanitarian assistance and global citizenship education co-ordinate under the umbrella body VENRO.

Quality and oversight

Internal systems and processes help ensure the effective delivery of Germany’s development co-operation. Select features are shown in the table below.

Features of Germany’s systems for quality and oversight

Quality assurance	As set out in the Guidelines for Bilateral Financial and Technical Cooperation, implementing organisations are responsible for comprehensively assessing planned projects, including the results focus, wider impact and cross-cutting issues (gender, climate and the environment, human rights, and poverty), while overall steering and financing decisions lie with BMZ.
Risk management	Risk and country assessments are informed by a broad range of sources, including dedicated analyses from German think tanks. Germany uses risk analysis, including corruption risks, to design country strategies and interventions and manage its programmes.
Innovation and adaptation	BMZ invests in a portfolio of digital and innovation initiatives in line with its strategic realignment of digital policy, which includes the Data4Policy initiative and digital transformation centers in selected partner countries. GIZ’s flagship initiatives include the “techDetector”, a Collaborative Innovators toolkit for start-ups and the public sector, and the GIZ Innovation Fund to foster an innovative culture and help identify scalable solutions.
Results management	Germany’s results system has a broad set of indicators, including standard indicators for public communication purposes. It uses results matrices and logical frameworks to link project outcomes to portfolio impacts. Germany is reviewing standards for monitoring and aims to improve the use of results data and evidence for adaptive planning tailored to country contexts.
Evaluation	Germany has a dedicated independent institute for strategic evaluations, Deval, complementing agency evaluation functions, notably in GIZ and KfW. BMZ provides overall steering for evaluations and has taken reform measures in response to a report by the Federal Court of Audit’s in 2021. In 2021, it adopted new evaluation guidelines. Learn more about Germany’s evaluation system. Visit the DAC Evaluation Resource Centre for evaluations of Germany’s development co-operation.
Communication and transparency	BMZ is introducing a portal to provide detailed project information: www.transparenzportal.bund.de.

Additional resources

2021 OECD-DAC peer review of Germany: https://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-reviews/peer-reviews-of-dac-members.htm

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH: https://www.giz.de/en/html/index.html

Federal Foreign Office (AA): https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en

Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ): https://www.bmz.de/en

KfW Development Bank: https://www.kfw-entwicklungsbank.de/International-financing/KfW-Entwicklungsbank

CSO platform Verband Entwicklungspolitik und humanitäre Hilfe (VENRO): https://venro.org

Engagement Global (Service für Entwicklungsinitiativen): https://www.engagement-global.de/about-us.html

Germany’s practices on the Development Co-operation TIPs: Tools Insights Practices learning platform: https://www.oecd.org/development-cooperation-learning?tag-key+partner=germany#search

Member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1960.

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.

Notes

← 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.