Development Co-operation Profiles

Kazakhstan

Introduction

Kazakhstan has a long history of development co-operation with other countries in its region, providing development aid and reporting to the OECD for over a decade. Kazakhstan’s Agency of International Development (KazAID) was established in 2020, marking a new phase in the country’s development co-operation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the designated authority to implement the main lines of Kazakhstan’s official development assistance (ODA) policy. Kazakhstan provided the majority of its ODA bilaterally through multilateral channels, and its commitments focused on social infrastructure. Kazakhstan provided USD 36.8 million of ODA in 2022, representing 0.02% of gross national income (GNI).1

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

Development co-operation is an integral and increasingly important part of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy. The 2014 ODA Law (263-V) defines the main objectives, principles, competencies and sectoral priorities of Kazakhstan’s development co-operation while also providing the legal foundation for establishing an agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The key strategic document that outlines the priorities in Kazakhstan’s ODA policy is the Main Guidelines of State Policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Official Development Assistance for 2021-2025, approved by Presidential Decree No. 625 from 19 July 2021. In addition, the Foreign Policy Concept of Kazakhstan 2020-2030 guides Kazakhstan’s contribution to the international community’s development co-operation efforts. Guided by this overarching policy framework, the majority of Kazakhstan’s aid goes to Central Asian countries and Afghanistan, where KazAID focuses on technical assistance in areas such as gender equality, education, healthcare, entrepreneurship and other spheres.

ODA allocation overview

Kazakhstan provided USD 36.8 million of ODA in 2022, representing 0.02% of GNI.2 This was a decrease of 12.7% in real terms in volume and a decrease in share of GNI compared to 0.03% in 2021. Kazakhstan's ODA volume has remained stable over the past ten years despite some fluctuations. Total ODA on a grant-equivalent basis has the same value as net ODA under the cash-flow methodology used in the past, as Kazakhstan provides only grants.3

 

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
ODA as a share of GNI (%)		0.03	0.02
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.00	0.00
Grant element of total ODA (%)	>86	100	100

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

Kazakhstan provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 90.2% of total ODA disbursements. Seventy-three per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Kazakhstan allocated 9.8% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA for Ukraine

In 2022, Kazakhstan provided USD 2.3 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia's war of aggression, all of which in the form of humanitarian assistance. In 2021, Kazakhstan did not allocate any of its ODA to Ukraine.

 

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ODA to and through the multilateral system

In 2022, Kazakhstan provided USD 27.9 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, a fall of 13.3% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 3.6 million was core multilateral ODA, while USD 24.3 million were non-core contributions earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. All these earmarked contributions was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Kazakhstan's contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to UN entities and other multilateral organisations, mostly including international institutions active in development co-operation in Central Asian or Turkic countries, and Islamic regions.

 

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The UN system received 31.7% of Kazakhstan's multilateral contributions mainly through earmarked contributions, of which USD 5.5 million (62.2%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 8.9 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Kazakhstan's support (core and earmarked contributions) were UNDP (USD 1.9 million), FAO (USD 1 million) and UNESCO (USD 670 thousand). USD 2 million was provided to unspecified UN channels.

 

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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, Kazakhstan's bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 33.2 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 7.1% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, Kazakhstan channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through multilateral organisations (73.2%) and the public sector (26.4%).

 

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Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA

In 2022, Kazakhstan's bilateral ODA was primarily focused on developing countries in Europe and Central and South Asia. USD 2.3 million was allocated to Europe (all of which was to Ukraine) and USD 1.1 million was allocated to Central Asia, accounting for 6.9% and 3.2% of gross bilateral ODA respectively. Afghanistan received USD 4.2 million (12.6%). USD 25.3 million (76%) was unspecified by region. This is mostly in line with Kazakhstan's overall policy regional focus.

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 23% of Kazakhstan's gross bilateral ODA was allocated to specific countries, most notably to Afghanistan and Ukraine. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 77%.

 

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Kazakhstan allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (12.6%) to least developed countries in 2022 and 10.4% to lower-middle income countries, noting that 77% was unallocated by income group. Additionally, Kazakhstan allocated 14.9% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 5 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 5 million in 2022, representing 15% of Kazakhstan's gross bilateral ODA. All of this financing was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance. 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 Kazakhstan's bilateral ODA was social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 32% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 10.6 million) with a strong focus on support to other social infrastructure & services (USD 4 million, mostly for culture and cultural diversity), government and civil society (USD 3.6 million) and health and population (USD 2.1 million). ODA for production sectors totalled USD 9.1 million. Humanitarian amounted to USD 7.8 million (23.6% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused also/primarily on social sectors and production sectors in 2022.

 

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Other cross-cutting sectors and themes

In 2022, Kazakhstan committed USD 11.1 million (33.7% of its bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries' trade performance and integration into the world economy.

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 Kazakhstan as TOSSD totalled USD 45.5 million, down from USD 48.4 million in 2021, and Kazakhstan's TOSSD activities in support of sustainable development mostly targeted SDG 16 Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels and SDG 1 End poverty in all its forms everywhere. Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

Kazakhstan’s Law No. 263-V on Official Development Assistance (December 2014) describes the main objectives, principles, competencies and sectoral priorities of Kazakhstan’s ODA. The law designates the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the central authority for implementing Kazakhstan’s ODA. The same legislation also provided the legal basis for establishing KazAID on 15 December 2020 under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

KazAID is the designated authority that implements the main lines of Kazakhstan’s development co-operation. It is the “national operator” of the ODA system in Kazakhstan. The key areas of KazAID operations include technical assistance to partner countries (primarily Central Asian states), co-ordination of development efforts between the relevant ministries, and facilitation of partnerships with key stakeholders and development actors in the region. In its operation, KazAID is directed by the Main Guidelines of State Policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Official Development Assistance for 2021-2025, which set out the fundamental tools, instruments and financing modalities for Kazakhstan’s development co-operation for the period up to 2025.

Humanitarian aid is channelled through the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Although it is not the direct mandate of KazAID, the agency still monitors and accounts for the humanitarian assistance provided in close co-ordination with the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

 

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Additional resources

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan: www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa?lang=en.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2021) Main Guidelines of State Policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Official Development Assistance for 2021-2025, www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/kazaid/documents/details/456584?lang=en.

Kazakhstan has reported to the OECD activity-level data since 2014 on 2013 activities.

Kazakhstan is an Adherent to the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.

KAZAid is working with the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate to strengthen its capacity in ODA reporting and strategic planning and programming. Kazakhstan has expressed informally an interest in becoming a participant of the OECD Development Assistance Committee.

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.  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.

← 3.  Non-grants include sovereign loans, multilateral loans, equity investment and loans to the private sector.