Development Co-operation Profiles

New Zealand

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Introduction

New Zealand’s development co-operation primarily focuses on small island developing states (SIDS) in the Pacific region. It seeks to support the social, environmental, economic, and stability and governance pillars of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. New Zealand’s total official development assistance (ODA) increased in 2023 (USD 746.4 million, preliminary data), representing 0.3% of gross national income (GNI).

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

New Zealand’s development co-operation aims to achieve a more peaceful world, where all people live in dignity and safety, all countries can prosper, and our shared environment is protected. The 2019 policy statement International Cooperation for Effective Sustainable Development commits New Zealand to work towards global solutions to global sustainable development challenges, particularly climate change and its impacts. New Zealand’s ODA spending focuses on SIDS and least developed countries, with a primary geographic focus on the Pacific and a secondary geographic focus on Southeast Asia. In 2022, the New Zealand government released a new International Climate Finance Strategy to guide its climate finance investments.

Beyond its bilateral co-operation, New Zealand achieves global reach through engagement and support for the multilateral system, humanitarian assistance and regional programmes. It has developed plans to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment, human rights, child and youth well-being, and climate action into all New Zealand's International Development Cooperation Programme initiatives. New Zealand seeks to eliminate fossil fuel and fisheries subsidies; promotes an open, rules-based trading system; and advocates for SIDS internationally.

Poverty and inequality reduction focus

Equity and inclusion are cross-cutting themes and core principles of New Zealand’s 2019 policy statement for International Cooperation for Effective Sustainable Development. New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is committed to addressing the root causes of poverty and inequalities while promoting resilience and equitable participation, with a focus on Pacific Islands. New Zealand places particular emphasis on reducing group-based, horizontal inequalities – primarily gender- and youth-based inequalities – and promoting human rights through dedicated strategic action plans and policy markers. MFAT is seeking to better mainstream these cross-cutting elements across its international development programme.

Findings from OECD-DAC reviewss

The 2023 OECD-DAC peer review of New Zealand’s development co-operation praised its strong political commitment to working in a way that is partner-led, its focus on indigenous knowledge and values in partnerships and policy making, civil society funding that helps strengthen local organisations, and scaled-up international climate finance commitments. The review encouraged New Zealand to streamline its policy framework to make the most of the closer integration of diplomatic and development efforts, undertake strategic workforce planning, strengthen transparency to support accountability and communication to generate a sense of global citizenship among New Zealanders, and ensure that project design and implementation consistently integrate cross-cutting priorities such as gender equality and the environment. The peer review found that New Zealand had fully or partially implemented 14 of the 17 recommendations of the 2015 review. Learn more about New Zealand’s 2023 peer review and its management response [DCD/DAC/AR(2024)5/24].

ODA allocation overview

New Zealand provided USD 746.4 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2023 (USD 728.1 in constant terms), representing 0.3% of GNI.1 This was an increase of 41.3% in real terms in volume and an increase in the share of GNI from 2022. Nevertheless, New Zealand’s ODA is not in line with international commitments to achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio. New Zealand provided all of its ODA as grants in 2022.2

In 2023, New Zealand ranked 18th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries in terms of ODA to GNI ratio. While ODA had been increasing steadily since 2017, it declined sharply in 2022, increasing again in 2023. In accordance with its geographic focus, New Zealand has the third largest share of bilateral ODA to SIDS and the highest share of bilateral ODA to Oceania among DAC countries. New Zealand also has a high share of country-programmable aid.

 

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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New Zealand 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	0.28	0.22	0.30
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.06	0.04
Share of untied ODA covered by the DAC Recommendation	100	96.2	92
Share of untied ODA (All sectors and countries beyond the scope of the Untying Recommendation) (%)		84.7	82.3
Grant element of total ODA (%)	>86	100	100

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

New Zealand provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 80.6% of total ODA disbursements. Twenty-one per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). New Zealand allocated 19.4% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA for Ukraine

In 2023, New Zealand provided USD 4.4 million (preliminary data) of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s war of aggression, a 12.9% decrease from 2022 in real terms. USD 4.4 million of the amount was allocated to humanitarian assistance, a 12.9% decrease from 2022.

 

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, New Zealand provided USD 186.8 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an fall of 11.5% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 99.8 million was core multilateral ODA, while USD 87 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 42% of New Zealand’s non-core contributions and 58% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Sixty-five per cent of New Zealand’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to the UN system and the World Bank.

 

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The United Nations (UN) system received 48.1% of New Zealand’s multilateral contributions, of which USD 37.7 million (42%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 89.8 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of New Zealand’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were UNDP (USD 13.7 million), the WFP (USD 11.9 million) and UNHCR (USD 10 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, New Zealand’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 415.4 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 24.1% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, country programmable aid was 66.2% of New Zealand’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 42%. In-donor refugee costs were USD 14 million in 2022, an increase of 27% in real terms over 2021, and represented 3.4% of New Zealand’s total gross bilateral ODA.

New Zealand disbursed USD 8.2 million for triangular co-operation in 2022. Its regional priority is Oceania, with a focus on business. Learn more about triangular co-operation.

 

Note: NGO: non-governmental organisation.

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In 2022, New Zealand channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through the public sector. Technical co‑operation made up 11% of gross ODA in 2022.

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 60.6 million of gross bilateral ODA, of which 21.8% was directed to CSOs based in developing countries. Overall, 4.5% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions, and 10% 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 increased slightly as a share of bilateral ODA, from 13.1% to 14.6%. 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, New Zealand’s bilateral ODA was focused primarily on Oceania. USD 241.7 million was allocated to Oceania and USD 50.5 million to Asia, accounting for 58.2% and 12.2% of gross bilateral ODA respectively. USD 9.2 million was allocated to Africa. Oceania and Asia were also the main regional recipients of New Zealand’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, in line with the policy priorities of its multilateral strategy.

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 33.2% of gross bilateral ODA went to New Zealand’s top 10 recipients. Nine of its top 10 recipients are in the Pacific region, which is in line with its focus on its immediate neighbourhood and policy priorities. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 52.6%, of which 6.4% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.

 

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In 2022, New Zealand allocated 0.04% of its GNI to the least developed countries. This is lower than the DAC country average of 0.08%. After bilateral ODA that was unallocated by income group (52.6%), New Zealand allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (19%) to least developed countries in 2022. Additionally, New Zealand allocated 3.6% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 14.7 million. New Zealand allocated 32.2% of gross bilateral ODA to SIDS in 2022, equal to USD 133.9 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 84 million in 2022, representing 20.2% of New Zealand’s gross bilateral ODA. Nineteen per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, decreasing slightly from 20.5% in 2021, while 11.2% was allocated to peace, decreasing slightly from 12.5% in 2021. Five per cent went to conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, representing a similar level to 2021 (4.8%). 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 New Zealand’s bilateral ODA was social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 41.2% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 170.3 million) with a strong focus on support to health and population (USD 71.1 million), which accounted for 17.2% of gross bilateral ODA, and increased by 70.2% increase from 2019 in real terms, government and civil society (USD 35.9 million) and education (USD 29.4 million). ODA for production sectors amounted to USD 36.7 million (8.9% of bilateral ODA), with a focus on agriculture (USD 30.2 million) and trade and tourism (USD 26.6 million). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused primarily on social sectors in 2022.

 

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ODA for COVID-19

In 2022, New Zealand disbursed USD 54.5 million in ODA for the COVID-19 response, down from USD 151.6 million in 2021. Regarding COVID-19 vaccines, New Zealand provided USD 9.1 million in ODA for the donation of doses to developing countries in 2022, up 42.8% from USD 6.3 million in 2021. Of this, USD 2.6 million accounted for donations of doses purchased directly for developing countries in 2022, a 44.8% decrease from 4.7 million in 2021.

Gender equality

In the period 2021-22, New Zealand committed 55% of its screened bilateral allocable aid to gender equality and women’s empowerment, as either a principal or significant objective (up from 52.2% in 2019-20), compared with the 2021-22 DAC average of 43.3%. This is equal to USD 216.6 million 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 7.1% in 2021-22, compared with the DAC average of 3.9%.

• New Zealand includes gender equality objectives in 10% of its ODA for humanitarian aid, below the 2021-22 DAC average of 17%.

• New Zealand screens virtually all their bilateral allocable aid activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2021-22).

• New Zealand committed USD 6.6 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls and USD 1 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, New Zealand committed 39.9% of its total bilateral allocable aid (USD 148.4 million) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions (the DAC average was 35.1%), up from 35.3% in 2019-20. Unpacking the environmental data further:

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

• Thirty-one per cent of total bilateral allocable aid (USD 113.6 million) focused on climate change overall, up from 26.2% in 2019-20 (the DAC average was 30.5%). New Zealand had a greater focus on adaptation (28.1%) than on mitigation (13.1%) in 2021-22.

• Six per cent of screened bilateral allocable aid (USD 23.3 million) focused on biodiversity overall, down from 7.4% 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 million	% of bilateral allocable
Environment	134	36
Rio markers:
Biodiversity	23.3	6.3
Desertification	0.2	0.1
Climate change mitigation only	9	2.4
Climate change adaptation only	64.8	17.4
Both climate change mitigation and adaptation	39.8	10.7

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 New Zealand committed USD 22.4 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2022, USD 12.1 million less than in 2021. The 2022 value is equivalent to 7.3% of New Zealand’s bilateral allocable aid.

Other cross-cutting sectors and themes

In 2022, New Zealand:

• Does not generally seek exemptions for the payment of local tax and customs duties for ODA-funded goods and services. New Zealand does not have a specific policy and does not make information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.

• Committed USD 64.3 million (20.8% of its bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy.

• Committed USD 20.6 million (6.6% of its bilateral allocable aid) to address the immediate or underlying determinants of malnutrition in developing countries across a variety of sectors, such as other multisector, health and emergency response.

• Committed USD 65.3 million (21.1% of its bilateral allocable aid) to development co-operation projects and programmes that promote the inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities.

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. New Zealand’s results from 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, New Zealand’s reporting in 2022 was late but complete, with some areas to improve in terms of the accuracy of the data.

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 in developing countries, as well as for addressing global challenges. It provides a broad measure of development finance with the objective of increasing transparency and accountability of all external support that developing countries receive. In 2022, activities reported by New Zealand as TOSSD totalled USD 563.3 million, down from USD 721.3 million in 2021. Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is responsible for the majority of New Zealand’s ODA, with the remainder delivered by other government ministries and agencies. The ministry’s Pacific and Development Group leads an integrated approach to New Zealand’s foreign policy and development engagement with Pacific countries. The Pacific and Development Group is also responsible for New Zealand’s development work outside the Pacific.

The ministry has about 350 staff working on development, 31% of which are in country offices and embassies abroad.

New Zealand’s Auditor-General occasionally reviews New Zealand’s contributions to the 2030 Agenda and sustainable development. Most recently, this included a 2021 review of the Government’s Preparedness to Implement the Sustainable Development Goals.

 

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CSOs active in development co-operation, humanitarian assistance and global citizenship education co-ordinate under the umbrella body, the Council for International Development.

Quality and oversight

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

Features of New Zealand’s systems for quality and oversight

Quality assurance	Guidance is provided for applying four principles to ensure effective, inclusive, resilient and sustained activity design and implementation. Strategic action plans also cover priority areas – namely climate change, gender equality, child and youth well-being, and human rights. Senior advisers provide expertise in these areas to programme teams.
Risk management	New Zealand manages risk through a continuous process of identification, assessment, escalation and management. Risks are reviewed throughout the life cycle of every development activity. Internal guidance requires staff to safeguard against political, economic and environmental risks and gives consideration to the protection of children.
Innovation and adaptation	New Zealand pursues adaptive and responsive approaches driven by local context and informed by cultural frameworks.
Results management	New Zealand uses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to support a country-focused results approach. It aims to align country results frameworks to those of partner countries and the SDG framework. A priority in New Zealand’s approach to results is to improve the use of results for leadership decision making.
Evaluation	The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (MFAT) Evaluation Policy sets the core requirements for conducting evaluations, which are published on line. A management response is required for all evaluations, which should be published on line within three months and presented to the relevant four-year plan Governance Group. Evaluation is mandatory for programmes or projects exceeding NZD 10 million. Read more about New Zealand’s evaluation system. Visit the DAC Evaluation Resource Centre website for evaluations of New Zealand’s development co-operation.
Knowledge management and learning	Learning is a key objective of New Zealand’s performance management system. At a programme level, annual reflection reports assess risks, challenges and lessons, and are discussed and moderated by internal governance groups.
Communication and transparency	New Zealand’s 2023 peer review recommended that MFAT develop a comprehensive communication strategy linked to the ministry’s strategic purpose, and work across government to build global citizenship among New Zealanders. To enhance transparency, the new website, DevData (devdata.mfat.govt.nz), makes activity-level information on the International Development Cooperation programme available to a wide range of stakeholders.

Additional resources

2023 OECD-DAC peer review of New Zealand: https://doi.org/10.1787/10883ac5-en

2018 OECD-DAC mid-term review of New Zealand

New Zealand’s Policy Statement for International Cooperation for Effective Sustainable Development: https://www.mfat.govt.nz/assets/Aid-Prog-docs/Policy/Policy-Statement-New-Zealands-International-Cooperation-for-Effective-Sustainable-Development-ICESD.pdf

DevData https://devdata.mfat.govt.nz/

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT): https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/aid-and-development

Council for International Development (CID): https://www.cid.org.nz

Controller and Auditor General (2021), The Government’s Preparedness to Implement the Sustainable Development Goals: Presented to the House of Representatives Under Section 20 of the Public Audit Act 2001, August 2021, Office of the Auditor-General, Wellington: https://oag.parliament.nz/2021/sdgs/docs/sustainable-dev-goals.pdf

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

Member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1973.

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.  Other providers also provide non-grants, which include sovereign loans, multilateral loans, equity investment and loans to the private sector.