Development Co-operation Profiles

Saudi Arabia

Introduction

The government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest provider of official development assistance (ODA) in the Gulf region in terms of volume with a strong commitment to being a global leader in sustainable development. Saudi Arabia held the presidency of the G20 in 2020 and advanced the financing for sustainable development agenda by promoting a voluntary, integrated Financing for Sustainable Development Framework to mobilise more financial resources and promoting development effectiveness and G20 co-operation, including on improving policy coherence. Saudi Arabia’s development co-operation is guided by its foreign policy and its principles to assist partner countries. Saudi Arabia provided USD 6.6 billion of ODA in 2022, representing 0.59% of gross national income (GNI).1

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

Saudi Arabia is currently working to deliver a national development co-operation strategy aligned with its Vision 2030 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The two main players are the Saudi Fund for Development and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief). The Saudi Fund for Development provides soft loans, which are not geographically restricted, and deals directly with the governments of developing countries to finance priority development projects. It prioritises projects in least developed and low-income countries. Humanitarian assistance forms an important part of Saudi Arabia’s overall aid and is managed by KSRelief.

Saudi Arabia is also engaged in the multilateral development system, including through the Islamic Development Bank, United Nations (UN) organisations and the World Bank.

ODA allocation overview

Saudi Arabia provided USD 6.6 billion of ODA in 2022, representing 0.59% of GNI. This was a decrease of 5.2% in real terms in volume and a decrease in share of GNI compared to 1.01% in 2021. Saudi Arabia’s ODA volume has been fluctuating over time while exceeding USD 6 billion during 2021-22. In 2022, Saudi Arabia did not meet its international commitment to achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio. Within Saudi Arabia’s ODA portfolio in 2022, 95% was provided in the form of grants and 5% in the form of non-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
ODA as a share of GNI (%)		1.01	0.59
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.21	0.07
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.

Saudi Arabia provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 95.5% of total ODA disbursements, with 4.3% channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Saudi Arabia allocated 4.5% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA for Ukraine

In 2022, Saudi Arabia provided USD 5.1 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of the war. Almost all of this amount (99.5%) was humanitarian assistance. In 2021, Saudi Arabia did not allocate any of its ODA to Ukraine.

 

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ODA to and through the multilateral system

In 2022, Saudi Arabia provided USD 592 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, a decrease of 34.7% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 302.4 million was core multilateral ODA, while USD 289.7 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 56.4% of Saudi Arabia’s non-core contributions and 43.6% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Ninety-two per cent of Saudi Arabia’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to UN entities, the World Bank and other multilateral organisations, most notably Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Global Partnership for Education, the OPEC Fund for International Development and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

 

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The UN system received 34.7% of Saudi Arabia’s multilateral contributions, of which USD 142.8 million (69.5%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 205.4 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Saudi Arabia’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the WFP (USD 39.5 million), the WHO (USD 32.9 million) and UNICEF (USD 28.2 million).

 

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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, Saudi Arabia’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 6.5 billion of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 4.9% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, country programmable aid was 92.4% of Saudi Arabia’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to a non-DAC country average of 47%.

 

Note: NGO: non-governmental organisation.

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In 2022, Saudi Arabia channelled their bilateral ODA mainly through the public sector.

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 158.3 million of gross bilateral ODA, of which 59.6% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 0.5% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 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 increased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 1.6% to 2.4%. 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, Saudi Arabia’s bilateral ODA was primarily focused on North of Sahara Africa and the Middle East. USD 5.1 billion was allocated to North of Sahara Africa and USD 582.1 million to the Middle East, accounting for 78.2% and 9% of gross bilateral ODA respectively. USD 289.2 million was allocated to South of Sahara Africa, and USD 230 million was allocated to Asia (excluding the Middle East). Saudi Arabia’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations were mostly allocated to recipients in the Middle East and South Asia.

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 89.6% of gross bilateral ODA went to Saudi Arabia’s top 10 recipients. Saudi Arabia’s largest recipient was Egypt. Other top 10 recipients are located in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 4.4%.

 

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In 2022, least developed countries received 12.7% of Saudi Arabia’s gross bilateral ODA, representing 0.07% of its GNI. Saudi Arabia allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (80.3%) to lower-middle income countries (LMICs) in 2022, noting that 4.4% was unallocated by income group. Saudi Arabia allocated 2.8% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 180.5 million, and 0.8% of gross bilateral ODA to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2022, equal to USD 51.1 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 862.3 million in 2022, representing 13.3% of Saudi Arabia’s gross bilateral ODA. A share of 8% of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, decreasing from 30.3% in 2021, while 4.2% was allocated to peace, increasing from 2.8% in 2021. Four per cent went to conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, representing an increase from 2.5% 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, Saudi Arabia allocated USD 642.7 million to social infrastructure and services, accounting for 9.9% of its gross bilateral ODA. Investments in this area mostly focused on health and population (USD 321 million) and education (USD 195 million). Saudi Arabia’s support for health and population in 2022 accounted for 5% of gross bilateral ODA, representing an increase of 135.5% from 2019 in real terms. Activities in the production sectors amounted to USD 193 million (3%), primarily focused on industry, mining and construction (USD 170 million). Still, the largest portion of Saudi Arabia’s gross bilateral ODA was allocated to other sectors (USD 5.4 billion; 83.2%), mostly for general budget support (USD 5.1 billion; 78.4%). In addition, humanitarian assistance totalled USD 89.8 million, accounting for 1.4% of Saudi Arabia’s gross bilateral ODA. The largest share of earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused on social sectors in 2022.

 

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ODA for COVID-19

In 2022, Saudi Arabia disbursed USD 63.3 million in ODA for the COVID-19 response, down from USD 133.4 million in 2021. USD 52.8 million of this ODA is related to the provision of vaccine doses to developing countries, 5% of which bilaterally and 95% via the COVAX Facility.

Other cross cutting sectors and themes

In 2022, Saudi Arabia committed USD 170.3 million (18.1% of its bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy.

Effectiveness of development co-operation

The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation monitoring exercise tracks the implementation of the effectiveness commitments. Following a reform of the exercise during the 2020-22, the 4th global monitoring round (2023-26) has resumed. Information on partner countries’ participation in the exercise as well as their progress can be followed at the Global Dashboard.

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 Saudi Arabia as TOSSD totalled USD 6.8 billion, down from USD 7.4 billion in 2021, and Saudi Arabia’s TOSSD activities in support of sustainable development mostly targeted SDG 3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages and SDG 4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

Saudi Arabia’s development co-operation is shared between two principal actors: the Saudi Fund for Development, established in 1974, which provides development aid in the form of soft loans; and KSRelief, which provides humanitarian assistance. In addition, the Ministry of Finance manages bilateral aid and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has responsibility for Saudi Arabia’s contributions to multilateral institutions. A range of other domestic stakeholders also disburses ODA.

 

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Additional resources

Saudi Fund for Development: https://www.sfd.gov.sa.

King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief): https://www.ksrelief.org.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia: https://www.mofa.gov.sa/sites/mofaen/pages/default.aspx.

Saudi Arabia is a member of the Arab Coordination Group, participant of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 2016 and regularly participates in the Arab-DAC Dialogue on Development.

Saudi Arabia has been reporting to the OECD since 1966 and has been reporting activity-level data since 2018.

Saudi Arabia participated as an observer in a DAC statistical review in 2018 and the DAC peer review of the United Kingdom in 2020.

Saudi Arabia is an Adherent to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

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.