Development Co-operation Profiles

Ireland

Introduction

Ireland focuses its development co-operation on least developed countries (LDCs) and fragile contexts, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, concentrating on social sectors and humanitarian assistance. Outside of in-donor refugee costs, most official development assistance (ODA) is channelled to multilateral organisations and civil society organisations (CSOs). Ireland’s total ODA (USD 2.8 billion, preliminary data) increased in 2023, representing 0.67% of gross national income (GNI).

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

Under the overall objective to reach the furthest behind first, Ireland’s 2019 policy for international development, “A Better World”, sets four priorities: 1) gender equality; 2) reducing humanitarian need; 3) climate change; and 4) governance. To achieve these goals, Ireland commits to take action in three areas: 1) protection (including fragility); 2) food; and 3) people (human development). Ireland’s bilateral co-operation focuses on sub-Saharan Africa. Country strategies are not limited to development co-operation and cover the entirety of Ireland’s relations with the partner country.

A 2022 Operational Framework for Multilateral Engagement guides Ireland’s partnerships with the United Nations (UN) system, the European Union (EU) and multilateral development banks. Ireland provides high shares of core, flexible and multi-year funding and advocates for LDCs and fragile contexts. It adopted a new Global Citizenship Education Policy in 2021 and hosted a European Global Education Summit in 2022. Ireland’s first International Climate Finance Roadmap set out how it intends to meet its climate finance targets. A tax treaty policy contains a specific approach for developing countries.

Poverty and inequality reduction focus

“Reaching the furthest behind first” is the overarching objective of Ireland’s international development policy. The Department of Foreign Affairs interprets being “furthest behind” as a multi-dimensional concept encompassing multiple forms of poverty and inequalities and their intersections (see here). Regarding inequalities, one of Ireland’s four policy priorities is gender equality. Vertical (income) inequality and other forms of group-based inequalities are not explicitly identified as priorities. Ireland has developed an information note on “reaching the furthest behind first” to support its strategy, although this is not publicly available. New tools and formal processes to embed poverty and inequality in the programme cycle are under development.

Findings from OECD-DAC reviews

The 2023 OECD-DAC mid-term review commended Ireland for having made progress on all the recommendations from the previous peer review, albeit to varying degrees. It found that Ireland had continued its leadership as an advocate for sustainable development, a staunch multilateralist, a good partner for civil society and a promoter of development education. The mid-term review highlighted opportunities to achieve and maintain a substantially higher ODA/GNI ratio. It underlined the need for continued investments in human resources, guidance on its priorities and policy coherence. Learn more about Ireland’s 2023 mid-term review [DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/10] and 2020 DAC peer review.

ODA allocation overview

Ireland provided USD 2.8 billion (preliminary data) of ODA in 2023 (USD 2.6 billion in constant terms), representing 0.67% of GNI.1 This was an increase of 9.7% in real terms in volume and an increase in the share of GNI from 2022. The significantly higher levels of ODA in 2022 and 2023 are primarily due to additional resources for in-donor refugee costs, which constituted around half of Ireland's total ODA in both years. Ireland is making progress towards its domestic and EU commitments to achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio by 2030. Ireland provided all of its ODA as grants in 2022.2

In 2023, Ireland ranked 6th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries in terms of ODA to GNI ratio. In 2022, Ireland reported a very high share of gross bilateral ODA for in-donor refugee costs (66.1%). The very strong increase in in-donor refugee costs means the shares of allocated ODA in other areas may have decreased from 2021 to 2022, even if absolute volumes have not. Ireland stands out for its high shares of core contributions to civil society organisations. A very significant share of its programmes target gender equality (78% in 2021-22).

 

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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Ireland 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	0.30	0.63	0.67
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.11	0.11
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) (%)		94.8	96.3
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.

Ireland provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 75.7% of total ODA disbursements. Fourteen per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Ireland allocated 24.3% of the total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA for Ukraine

In 2023, Ireland provided USD 30.6 million (preliminary data) of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia's war of aggression, a 48.3% decrease from 2022 in real terms. USD 19 million of the amount was allocated to humanitarian assistance in 2023, a 37.2% 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, Ireland provided USD 840.3 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 20.6% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 585.7 million was core multilateral ODA, while USD 254.6 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 25.5% of Ireland's non-core contributions and 74.5% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Seventy-eight per cent of Ireland's total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to EU Institutions and the UN system.

 

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The United Nations system received 33.3% of Ireland's multilateral contributions, of which USD 165.7 million (59.2%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 280.1 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Ireland's support (core and earmarked contributions) were UNICEF (USD 36.4 million), the WFP (USD 35.3 million) and UNOCHA (USD 35 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, Ireland's bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 1.8 billion of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 209.3% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, country programmable aid was 10% of Ireland's gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 42%. In-donor refugee costs were USD 1.2 billion in 2022, an increase of 2 428.2% in real terms over 2021, representing 66.1% of Ireland's total gross bilateral ODA.

 

Note: NGO: non-governmental organisation.

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In 2022, Ireland channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through the public sector. Technical co-operation made up 0.7% of gross ODA in 2022.

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, CSOs received USD 252.9 million of gross bilateral ODA, of which 10.8% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 6.7% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 7.2% 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 37.9% to 13.9%. Learn more about how Ireland's innovative funding empowers civil society partners and 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, Ireland's bilateral ODA was primarily focused on Africa. USD 299.1 million was allocated to Africa and USD 64.5 million to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 86.2% for Ukraine), accounting respectively for 16.4% and 3.5% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 41.1 million was allocated to Middle East. Africa was also the main regional recipient of Ireland's earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations. This is in line with Ireland's policy priority.

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 14.6% of gross bilateral ODA went to Ireland's top 10 recipients. With the exception of Ukraine, its top 10 recipients are all in sub-Saharan Africa, which is in line with its policy focus. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 77.1%, of which 85.7% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.

 

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In 2022, Ireland allocated 0.11% of its GNI to the least developed countries. Ireland allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (15.1%) to least developed countries in 2022, noting that 77.1% was unallocated by income group. Additionally, Ireland allocated 8.6% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 157.2 million. Ireland allocated 0.2% of gross bilateral ODA to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2022, equal to USD 3.7 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 299.1 million in 2022, representing 16.4% of Ireland's gross bilateral ODA. Thirty-nine per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, increasing from 34.7% in 2021, while 15.2% was allocated to peace, decreasing from 16.8% in 2021. Three per cent went to conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, representing a decrease from 3.5% 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 Ireland's bilateral ODA was allocated to in-donor refugee costs. Investments in this area accounted for 66.1% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 1.2 billion). ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 231.1 million, focusing on health and population (USD 87.7 million), which accounted for 4.8% of gross bilateral ODA, and an increase of 20.9% from 2019 in real terms, and government and civil society (USD 77.2 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 198.4 million (10.9% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations also focused on humanitarian assistance and social sectors in 2022.

 

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ODA for COVID-19

In 2022, Ireland disbursed USD 28.4 million in ODA for the COVID-19 response, down from USD 49.2 million in 2021. Regarding COVID-19 vaccines, Ireland provided USD 19.6 million in ODA for donations of doses to developing countries in 2022, up 156.9% from USD 7.6 million in 2021. Of this amount, USD 18 million accounted for the donation of doses from domestic supply in 2022, a 271.2% increase from USD 4.9 million in 2021. Meanwhile, USD 1.1 million accounted for donations of doses purchased directly for developing countries in 2022, a 37.5% decrease from 1.7 million in 2021.

Gender equality

In the period 2021-22, Ireland committed 78% of its screened bilateral allocable aid to gender equality and women's empowerment, as either a principal or significant objective (down from 79.9% in 2019-20), compared with the 2021-22 DAC average of 43.3%. This is equal to USD 361.2 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 13% in 2021-22, compared with the DAC average of 3.9%.

• Ireland includes gender equality objectives in 75.8% of its ODA for humanitarian aid, above the 2021-22 DAC average of 17%.

• Ireland screens the majority of their bilateral allocable aid activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (82.8% in 2021-22).

• Ireland committed USD 15.5 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls and USD 12.6 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, Ireland committed 29% of its total bilateral allocable aid (USD 153.4 million) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions (the DAC average was 35.1%), up from 27.3% in 2019-20. Unpacking the environmental data further:

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

• Twenty-two per cent of total bilateral allocable aid (USD 116.6 million) focused on climate change overall, up from 21.8% in 2019-20 (the DAC average was 30.5%). Ireland had a greater focus on adaptation (26.6%) than on mitigation (12%) in 2021-22.

• Eight per cent of screened bilateral allocable aid (USD 31.6 million) focused on biodiversity overall, down from 10.2% 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	131.8	30.9
Rio markers:
Biodiversity	31.6	7.5
Desertification	26.5	6.3
Climate change mitigation only	3.2	0.6
Climate change adaptation only	65.8	12.5
Both climate change mitigation and adaptation	47.5	9

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 Ireland committed USD 6.7 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2022, USD 1.9 million more than in 2021. The 2022 value is equivalent to 1.2% of Ireland's bilateral allocable aid.

Other cross-cutting sectors and themes

In 2022, Ireland also:

• Regarding the payment of local tax and customs duties for ODA-funded goods and services, Ireland is working towards making information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.

• Committed USD 37.6 million (6.6% of its bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries' trade performance and integration into the world economy in 2022.

• Committed USD 202.8 million (35.7% of its bilateral allocable aid) 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 166.4 million (29.3% of its bilateral allocable aid) to development co-operation projects and programmes that promote the inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities.

Mobilised private finance

Ireland uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2022, Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Department of Foreign Affairs mobilised USD 0.7 million from the private sector through simple co-financing. This constituted a 38.6% increase compared to 2021.

 

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

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A share of 40.8% targeted middle-income countries, while 31.1% 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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Ireland mobilised private finance in 2021-22, which was mainly related to activities in agriculture, forestry, and fishing (90.3%), as its top sector. Furthermore, 18.2% of Ireland's total mobilised private finance over this period was for climate action.

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. Ireland'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, Ireland's reporting in 2022 was late, with some areas to improve in terms of the completeness and 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 (SDGs) 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 Ireland as TOSSD totalled USD 2.4 billion, up from USD 1.2 billion in 2021, and Ireland's TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all and SDG 3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

The Development Co-operation Division within the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) steers and co‑ordinates Irish development co-operation policies. Excluding in-donor refugee costs, the DFA manages the largest share of Irish ODA. In addition, the department is responsible for EU co-operation, while the Department of Finance provides contributions to the EU budget. Other departments mainly fund multilateral organisations and collaborate with the DFA on specific initiatives. They co-ordinate through the Inter‑Departmental Committee on Development Cooperation. The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence oversees development co-operation in parliament.

Around 260 staff members at DFA headquarters and missions work on development co-operation.

 

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CSOs active in development co-operation, humanitarian assistance and global citizenship education co‑ordinate under the umbrella body Dóchas. The Irish Development Education Association is a national network for global citizenship education.

Quality and oversight

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

Features of Ireland’s systems for quality and oversight

Quality assurance	New country strategies undergo internal and external quality assurance at inception, drawing on findings from a compulsory final review. Guidance, training and a gender adviser network promote gender equality in programming. The development of a climate-proofing methodology is ongoing, and a new climate unit supports embassies.
Risk management	The 2014 Risk Management Policy sets out risk management processes and responsibilities, highlighting that risk appetite is necessary. A chief risk officer is part of senior management. Ireland has developed a Department of Foreign Affairs Safeguarding Policy and is working on an implementation plan and training.
Innovation and adaptation	Ireland enables flexibility for civil society partners to innovate with innovation as one of its funding criteria. It also supports challenge funding, such as the “The SDG Challenge 2022 – SFI Future Innovator Prize Programme” and the “Science for Development Award”.
Results management	Ireland is strengthening results management at both headquarters and embassies, including results frameworks that capture whole-of-mission efforts and enable adaptation of strategies to the Sustainable Development Goals. It is developing guidance on reporting and accountability frameworks to support staff in embassies.
Evaluation	The Evaluation and Audit Unit plans and manages evaluations and tracks the implementation of management responses to strategic evaluations. Read more about Ireland’s evaluation system. Visit the DAC Evaluation Resource Centre website for evaluations of Ireland’s development co-operation.
Knowledge management and learning	Regional thematic workshops and formal communities of practice complement informal staff collaboration, co-ordination and information exchange across teams. New mission strategy guidance prompts missions to conduct learning workshops to integrate learning and research agendas into the mission strategies.
Communication and transparency	The Communications Unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs has a key focus on promoting Ireland’s ODA work around the world. Irish Aid's work is promoted through media and dedicated online channels. A number of public engagement events are hosted throughout the year to engage the public on ODA. In addition, Ireland has a dedicated multi-stakeholder approach to global citizenship education.

Additional resources

2023 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Ireland: DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/10

2020 OECD-DAC peer review of Ireland: https://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-reviews/oecd-development-co-operation-peer-reviews-ireland-2020-c20f6995-en.htm

Irish Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs: https://www.irishaid.ie

CSO umbrella organisation Dóchas: https://www.dochas.ie

Irish Development Education Association: https://www.ideaonline.ie

Ireland's practices on the Development Co-operation TIPS: Tools Insights Practices learning platform: https://www.oecd.org/development-cooperation-learning?tag-key+partner=ireland#search

Member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1985.

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.