Development Co‑operation Profiles

Romania

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Introduction

Romania’s international development co-operation has grown in recent years with a focus on the extended Black Sea region, the Western Balkans, Africa and the Middle East. Moldova is the main beneficiary of Romania’s international development co-operation and humanitarian assistance efforts. The Romanian Agency for International Development Cooperation (RoAid) was established in 2017 and began implementing aid activities in 2018. Romania’s total ODA (USD 546.2 million, preliminary data) increased in 2023, representing 0.16% of its gross national income (GNI).1

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

Romania’s assistance is provided in line with Law No. 213/2016, which regulates development co-operation and humanitarian aid. The law sets out the strategic objectives, the programmatic and institutional framework, as well as the financing and implementation modalities of Romania’s development co-operation. In terms of international development co-operation and humanitarian assistance, Romania’s global strategic objective is to contribute to the eradication of extreme poverty through effective partnerships with partner countries to achieve their sustainable development objectives.

Romania adopted its new strategic framework, the “2024-2027 Multiannual Strategic Programme of International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance”. Thematic priorities include: institutional development; green transition, the environment and climate change; and human development. Its policy implementation instruments include bilateral assistance (e.g. transferring best practices, including on European integration; providing humanitarian assistance) and multilateral assistance (e.g. supporting the activities of essential international organisations such as the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).

Starting in 2024, Romania established ten priority countries – the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia, Albania, the Palestinian Authority, Mauritania, the United Republic of Tanzania, Senegal and Ethiopia. Romania’s international development co-operation objectives will also be fulfilled through collaboration with civil society, academia and the private sector, as well as by promoting transparency and communication, mobilising additional resources, and consolidating the capacity of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) as the national co-ordinator of international development co-operation and humanitarian assistance.

ODA allocation overview

Romania provided USD 546.2 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2023 (USD 523.4 million in constant terms), representing 0.16% of its GNI. This was an increase of 27.1% in real terms in volume and an increase in the share of GNI from 2022. ODA volume has overall increased over the last ten years despite a slight decrease in 2015. The Romanian Government has committed to achieving the European-level target of 0.33% ODA/GNI by 2030; this commitment is still to be reached, but steady progress can be observed over the last years. Romania provided all of its ODA as grants in 2023. Total ODA on a grant-equivalent basis has the same value as net ODA under the cash-flow methodology used in the past, as Romania provides only grants.2

 

Note: Data on 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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Performance against commitments and DAC recommendations

Description	Target	2021	2022	2023, preliminary
ODA as a share of GNI (%)	0.33	0.15	0.14	0.16
Grant element of total ODA (%)	>86	100	100

Note: ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income; DAC: Development Assistance Committee.

Romania provided most of its ODA multilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 25% of total ODA disbursements. Five per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Romania allocated 75% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA for Ukraine

In 2023, Romania provided USD 5.6 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s war of aggression, a 48.8% decrease from 2022 in real terms.

 

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, Romania provided USD 313.6 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 14.1% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 308.9 million was core multilateral ODA, while USD 4.7 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 12% of Romania’s non-core contributions and 88% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Ninety-seven per cent of Romania’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to EU Institutions, United Nations entities and the World Bank.

 

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The UN system received 3.1% of Romania’s multilateral contributions mainly in the form of core contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 9.9 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Romania’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the UN Secretariat (USD 4.8 million), FAO (USD 747 thousand) and WHO (USD 689 thousand).

 

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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, Romania’s bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 103 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 23.4% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, country programmable aid was 67% of Romania’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to a non-DAC country average of 47%. In-donor refugee costs amounted to USD 15.3 million in 2022, mostly in response to the consequences of the Russian’s war of aggression, representing 14.9% of Romania’s total gross ODA.

 

Note: NGO: non-governmental organisation.

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In 2022, more than 90% of Romania’s bilateral gross ODA was channelled through the public sector.

 

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Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA

In 2022, Romania’s bilateral ODA was primarily focused on ODA-eligible countries in Europe. USD 78 million was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 13.5% for Ukraine) and USD 3.5 million to the Middle East, accounting respectively for 75.7% and 3.4% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 1.7 million was allocated to Africa. Europe was also the main regional recipient of Romania’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations.

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 78.2% of gross bilateral ODA went to Romania’s top 10 recipients. Romania’s main recipient is the Republic of Moldova and the rest of the top 10 recipients are primarily in Europe and the Middle East. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 18.2%, of which 81.5% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.

 

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Romania allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (67.6%) to upper-middle income countries in 2022, noting that 18.2% was unallocated by income group. Additionally, Romania allocated 60.2% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 62 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 reached USD 3.8 million in 2022, representing 3.7% of Romania’s gross bilateral ODA. Twenty-four per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, increasing significantly from 6.6% 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, more than half of Romania’s bilateral ODA was allocated to social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 56.6% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 58.3 million) with a strong focus on support to education (USD 55.7 million). ODA for other macro sectors totalled USD 28.1 million, mostly consisting of refugee costs in donor countries (USD 15.3 million) and general budget support/programme assistance (USD 11 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 16.1 million (15.6% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused primarily on humanitarian assistance and social sectors in 2022.

 

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Total official support for sustainable development

Total official support for sustainable development is an international statistical standard that monitors all official and officially supported resources for financing the SDGs in developing countries, as well as for addressing global challenges. It provides a broader 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 Romania as TOSSD totalled USD 418 million, up from USD 383.3 million in 2021, and Romania’s TOSSD activities in support of sustainable development mostly targeted SDG 4 “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, and SDG 17 “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development”. Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

The MFA co-ordinates Romania’s international development co-operation and humanitarian assistance policy at the national level. As such, it monitors the progress made in achieving Romania’s objectives and international commitments while also collecting analyses for reporting at the national and international levels on Romania’s development co-operation and humanitarian aid activities. In this context, more than 20 Romanian public institutions are engaged in ODA reporting.

Regulated by Law No. 213/2016 and operational since 2017, RoAid is the national development institution, under the direct authority of the MFA, which is responsible for implementing projects and programmes in the field of international development co-operation and humanitarian assistance. The agency has promoted partnerships with the private sector and non-governmental organisations. In its international co-operation with other development co-operation agencies, RoAid has also been active as a member of the Practitioners’ Network for European Development Co-operation since 2019. In addition, Law No. 213/2016 established an Advisory Committee for International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance. The committee is responsible for ensuring the efficient integration of strategic planning and designation of geographic and thematic priorities for Romania’s development co-operation activities.

In 2022, the MFA disbursed 6.4% of Romania’s total gross ODA (including through RoAid with 3.6%) while the Ministry of Finance disbursed 72.4% and the Ministry of Education 13.2%.

 

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Additional resources

Ministry of Foreign Affairs: https://www.mae.ro/en/node/2062.

Romanian Agency for International Development Cooperation website (2024): https://roaid.ro/en/2382-2.

Law 213 of November 9th, 2016 on international development cooperation and humanitarian assistance, https://www.mae.ro/sites/default/files/file/anul_2024/pdf_2024/law_213_2016_en.pdf.

The 2024-2027 Multiannual Strategic Programme of International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance: https://www.mae.ro/sites/default/files/file/anul_2024/pdf_2024/ro_2024-2027_multiannual_strategic_programme_of_international_development.pdf.

Romania has been a Participant in the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 2018.

On 25 January 2022, the OECD Council decided to open accession discussions with Romania and five other countries, taking into account the criteria of like-mindedness, significant player, mutual benefit and global considerations and recognising these countries’ progress toward fulfilling the criteria outlined in the Framework for Consideration of Prospective Members.

Romania has been reporting to the OECD since 2008 and reporting activity-level data since 2015 on 2014 activities.

Romania is an Adherent to the OECD Recommendation of the Council for Development Co-operation Actors on Managing the Risk of Corruption; the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas; the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development; the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness; and the OECD Declaration on Policy Coherence for Development. Learn more about DAC recommendations.

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.