Development Co-operation Profiles

Austria

Introduction

Austria’s development co-operation is rooted in human rights, partnership and responsibility principles. Geographically, it focuses on nine priority partner countries – particularly in South East and Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa – and four priority regions (Western Balkans, West Africa and Sahel, East and Horn of Africa, and Southern Africa). Austria’s total official development assistance (ODA) (USD 2 billion, preliminary data) decreased in 2023, representing 0.38% of gross national income (GNI).

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

The Federal Act on Development Co-operation (2003) defines Austria’s three main development co-operation objectives as poverty eradication, ensuring peace and human security, and preserving the environment. In November 2022, the Austrian government approved the Three-year Programme for Austrian Development Policy (2022-24), which also reflects these original objectives. Austria also mainstreams gender and climate across its development co-operation.

Austria channels most of its support to multilateral organisations, with its allocations to international financial institutions guided by the Ministry of Finance’s Strategic Guidelines. Austria also has a strong tradition of supporting conflict prevention, nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament, arms control and the rule of law as foreign policy priorities. These priorities are evident in Austria’s leadership in its immediate neighbourhood – South East Europe – where it plays an important role in promoting regional and European integration. Austria also seeks to promote peace and security in its engagement with the European Union (EU).

Poverty and inequality reduction focus

Eradicating poverty is one of the three objectives of Austria’s 2022 Federal Act on Development Co-operation and one of the core objectives of its Three-Year Programme. Austria focuses on multi-dimensional aspects of poverty: the 2009 policy on poverty reduction touches on links between poverty, economic inequality and gender equality, with an emphasis on targeting least developed countries (LDCs). It has also developed a poverty marker for internal statistical usage. Austria takes into account some dimensions of horizontal inequalities, namely gender equality, persons with disabilities, and children and young people.

Findings from OECD-DAC reviews

Austria’s mid-term review was conducted in February 2023. It welcomed the government’s adoption of the 2022-24 Three-year Programme for Austrian Development Policy as a step towards a more co-ordinated approach but noted that further work is needed to make it a whole-of-government strategy. The review also noted that Austria had made progress on 5 of the 11 recommendations of the 2020 peer review and limited progress on the remaining 6. It also praised Austria’s successful efforts to mobilise additional resources for humanitarian assistance. The review encouraged Austria to continue working towards strengthening the coherence, co-ordination, visibility and accountability of its development co-operation and humanitarian efforts. Learn more about Austria’s 2023 mid-term review [DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/2] and 2020 peer review.

ODA allocation overview

Austria provided USD 2 billion (preliminary data) of ODA in 2023 (USD 1.8 billion in constant terms) representing 0.38% of GNI1. This was a decrease of 4.1% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2022. ODA volume has been increasing from 2018 up to 2022, with growth in in-donor refugee costs since 2020. Austria’s ODA is not in line with its domestic, international, and EU commitments to collectively achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio by 2030. Within Austria’s ODA portfolio in 2022, 93.7% was provided in the form of grants and 6.3% in the form of non-grants.2

In 2023, Austria ranked 15th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries when ODA is taken as a share of GNI. The increase of in-donor refugee costs in 2022 means that shares of bilateral ODA allocated to other areas may have decreased from 2021 to 2022, even if absolute volumes have not. Austria continues to have one of the highest bilateral ODA shares amongst DAC members targeting the environment as a principal objective (21% in 2021-22). Read about Austria’s beneficial support for biodiversity conservation in Moldova.

 

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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Austria 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	0.31	0.39	0.38
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.07	0.07
Share of untied ODA covered by the DAC Recommendation	100	49.7	80.8
Share of untied ODA (All sectors and countries beyond the scope of the Untying Recommendation) (%)		59.3	64.6
Grant element of total ODA (%)	>86	98.2	96

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

Austria provided a higher share of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 58.8% of total ODA disbursements. Seventeen per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Austria allocated 41.2% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA for Ukraine

In 2023, Austria provided USD 63.6 million (preliminary data) of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s war of aggression, a 24% decrease from 2022 in real terms. USD 18.3 million of the amount was allocated to humanitarian assistance in 2023, a 47.9% 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, Austria provided USD 954.3 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 3.9% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 767.3 million was core multilateral ODA, while USD 187 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 22.5% of Austria’s non-core contributions, and 77.5% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Seventy-nine per cent of Austria’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to EU Institutions, the World Bank, and other multilateral institutions.

 

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The United Nations (UN) system received 12.2% of Austria’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 70.5 million (60.6%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 116.3 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Austria’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were UNHCR (USD 18.3 million), the WFP (USD 13.9 million) and the UN (USD 9.5 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, Austria’s bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 1.1 billion of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 62.2% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, country programmable aid was 7.3% of Austria’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 42%. In-donor refugee costs were USD 372.1 million in 2022, an increase of 529.6% in real terms over 2021, and represented 34% of Austria’s total gross bilateral ODA.

Austria disbursed USD 0.2 million for triangular co-operation in 2022. Its regional priority is Latin America and Caribbean, with a focus on government & civil society. Learn more about triangular co-operation.

 

Note: NGO: non-governmental organisation.

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In 2022, Austria channelled their bilateral ODA mainly through the public sector and multilateral organisations as earmarked funding. Technical co-operation made up 14.3% of gross ODA in 2022.

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 137.0 million of gross bilateral ODA, of which 2.6% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 0% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions, while 12.4% 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 15.9% to 12.5%. 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, Austria’s bilateral ODA was primarily focused on ODA-eligible countries in Europe - USD 288.3 million (26.3%), of which 26.3% for Ukraine. USD 140 million was allocated to Africa, accounting for 12.8% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 106.1 million was allocated to Asia (excluding the Middle-East). Europe was also the main regional recipient of Austria’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, which was in line with its overall policy focus.

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 24.7% of gross bilateral ODA went to Austria’s top 10 recipients. With the exception of Ukraine, Iran, and India, its top 10 recipients are in the Western Balkans, Eastern Neighbourhood, and sub-Saharan Africa, which are in line with Austria’s regional focus and priority countries. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 57.9%, of which 58.7% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.

 

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In 2022, Austria allocated 0.07% of its GNI to the LDCs. This is close to the DAC country average of 0.08%. Austria allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (18.3%) to upper middle-income countries in 2022, noting that 57.9% was unallocated by income group. LDCs received 8.6% of Austria’s gross bilateral ODA (USD 94 million). Additionally, Austria allocated 7.1% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 77.6 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 145.1 million in 2022, representing 13.3% of Austria’s gross bilateral ODA. Twenty-eight per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, decreasing from 36.3% in 2021, while 9.5% was allocated to peace, increasing from 7.8% in 2021. Two per cent went to conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, representing a small increase from 1.5% 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, the largest focus of Austria’s bilateral ODA was ‘other’ sectors. Investments in this area accounted for 40.4% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 452.4 million) with a strong focus on support to refugees in donor countries (USD 372.1 million), administrative costs of donors (USD 35.6 million) and other multisector (USD 31 million). ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 344.8 million, focusing on education (USD 184.4 million). USD 65.7 million was committed for health and population in 2022, accounting for 5.9% of gross bilateral ODA and representing an 83.5% increase from 2019 in real terms. Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 155.2 million (13.8% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused primarily on social and other sectors in 2022.

 

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ODA for COVID-19

In 2022, Austria disbursed USD 42.1 million in ODA for the COVID-19 response, down from USD 59.9 million in 2021. Regarding COVID-19 vaccines, Austria provided USD 33 million in ODA for donations of doses to developing countries in 2022, up 85.8% from USD 17.7 million in 2021. Of this amount, USD 32.9 million accounted for the donation of doses from domestic supply in 2022, an 85.2% increase from USD 17.7 million in 2021.

Gender equality

In the period 2021-22, Austria committed 40.2% of its screened bilateral allocable aid to gender equality and women’s empowerment, as either a principal or significant objective (up from 37.9% in 2019-20), compared with the 2021-22 DAC average of 43.3%. This is equal to USD 217.4 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 5.7% in 2021-22, compared with the DAC average of 3.9%.

• Austria includes gender equality objectives in 58.5% of its ODA for humanitarian aid, above the 2021-22 DAC average of 17%.

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

• Austria committed USD 4.6 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls and USD 8.6 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, Austria committed 37.6% of its total bilateral allocable aid (USD 189.4 million) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions (the DAC average was 35.1%), up from 37.2% in 2019-20. Unpacking the environmental data further:

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

• Thirty-five per cent of total bilateral allocable aid (USD 173.8 million) focused on climate change overall, up from 32.4% in 2019-20 (the DAC average was 30.5%). Austria had a greater focus on mitigation (25.1%) than on adaptation (17.8%) in 2021-22.

• Seven per cent of screened bilateral allocable aid (USD 36.2 million) focused on biodiversity overall, up from 5.9% in 2019-20 (the DAC average was 7.2%). Read about Austria’s support for biodiversity conversation in Moldova.

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	189.4	37.6
Rio markers:
Biodiversity	36.2	7.2
Desertification	15	3
Climate change mitigation only	83.9	16.7
Climate change adaptation only	47.4	9.4
Both climate change mitigation and adaptation	42.4	8.4

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 Austria committed USD 2.1 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2022, USD 1.6 million more than in 2021. The 2022 value is equivalent to 0.4% of Austria’s bilateral allocable aid.

Other cross-cutting sectors and themes

In 2022, Austria also:

• Seeks exemptions for the payment of local tax and customs duties for ODA-funded goods and services. It does not make information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.

• Committed USD 168.5 million (30.1% of its bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy.

• Committed USD 28.9 million (5.2% 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

Austria uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2022, Austria’s Austrian Development Agency and Austrian Development Bank (OeEB) mobilised USD 153.1 million from the private sector through syndicated loans, shares in collective investment vehicles, simple co-financing and direct investment in companies and special purpose vehicles. This constituted a 71.5% increase compared to 2021.

 

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

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A share of 66.9% targeted middle-income countries, while 0.6% went to LDCs and other low-income countries (LICs) in 2021-22, noting that 32.5% 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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Mobilised private finance by Austria in 2021-22 related mainly to activities in energy (65.1%), as its top sector. Furthermore, over this period, 68.3% of Austria’s total mobilised private finance was for climate action.

Private sector instruments

In 2022, the OeEB extended USD 372.5 million in the form of private sector instruments (PSI) to developing countries. Of this, loans accounted for 86.3%, whereas equities represented 13.2%. Other private sector instruments included subordinated loans.

 

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In 2022, USD 37.1 million (9.9%) of Austria’s private sector instruments were allocated to the LDCs and other LICs, while a majority (51.7%) went to middle-income countries and UMICs in particular (30.4%). Moreover, USD 143 million was unallocated by income. Austria’s private sector instruments mostly supported projects in energy (28.5%), industry, mining and construction (25.5%) and banking and financial services (25.2%).

 

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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. Austria’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 meets high-quality standards before they are published. Regarding DAC/CRS reporting to the OECD, Austria’s reporting in 2022 was on time, complete, and accurate. 

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 Austria as TOSSD totalled USD 2.4 billion, up from USD 1.8 billion in 2021, and Austria’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all 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

The Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs develops and co-ordinates Austria’s development policy and allocates and oversees the budget of the co-operation agency, the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). The ADA is the operational unit of Austrian Development Cooperation. The Federal Ministry of Finance is responsible for most core contributions to multilateral organisations and is involved in the oversight of the OeEB. Local governments, the federal states and several other federal ministries – including the Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism; the Ministry of Education, Science and Research; the Ministry of Defence; the Ministry of the Interior; and the Federal Chancellery – also contribute and are involved in delivering Austria’s ODA.

Austria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has 14 staff members working on development co-operation. The development agency has a core personnel of around 170. In addition, it employs project staff (approximately 150) through third-party funding. The ADA has 11 co-ordination offices and 13 project offices in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

A Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Development discusses Austria’s ODA targets and the Three-year Programme. In 2022, the Austrian Court of Audit published reports on the OeEB as well as on Austria’s follow-up and implementation of the SDGs.

 

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Stakeholders are consulted regularly on development co-operation and humanitarian assistance issues, yet there is no institutionalised standing council or forum. CSOs active in development co-operation, humanitarian assistance and global citizenship education co-ordinate under the umbrella body Global Responsibility: Platform for Development and Humanitarian Aid.

Quality and oversight

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

Features of Austria’s systems for quality and oversight

Quality assurance	Austria has processes and quality assurance checks in place for bilateral official development assistance managed by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the Development Bank of Austria (OeEB). Federal ministries tend to rely on multilateral institutions’ systems and procedures for quality assurance.
Risk management	Austria assesses risk for country strategies, with a strong focus on internal and fiduciary risks. The risk management system requires early identification and assessment of up to eight risks in the programme cycle as well as monitoring and reporting. Austria’s whistleblowing mechanism covers corruption and sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment. A pilot on portfolio risk assessment is being rolled out in ADA co-ordination offices.
Innovation and adaptation	Austria is investing in innovation-focused challenge funds, the latest being on Frugal Innovations, to further development impact.
Results management	Austria does not have a formal policy on managing sustainable development results, although it is strengthening guidance and internal processes for results-based management. It aims to improve use and learning from results and review the standard results indicators in its IT system.
Evaluation	The evaluation policy establishes a common evaluation framework across Austria’s development co-operation system. It applies to the ADA, the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism, and the OeEB. The ADA also has guidelines for programme and project evaluations. Austrian Development Cooperation’s Strategic Evaluation Plan 2023/2024 sets out the strategic evaluation priorities. Learn more about Austria’s evaluation system. Visit the DAC Evaluation Resource Centre for evaluations of Austria’s development co-operation
Knowledge management and learning	The ADA’s Knowledge Management Unit has a repository of information which is disseminated through newsletters and “good to know” messages. The ADA’s annual conference for staff facilitates mutual reflection, knowledge exchange and learning on issues that are important to global development.
Communication and transparency	The communication strategy aims to increase the profile of Austrian development co-operation, ensure transparency, raise awareness of global issues and the Sustainable Development Goals, and mobilise public engagement. The ADA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs publish project factsheets and evaluations on the ADA’s website.

Additional resources

2023 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Austria: DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/2

2020 OECD-DAC peer review of Austria: https://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-reviews/oecd-development-co-operation-peer-reviews-austria-2020-03b626d5-en.htm

Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs (BMEIA): https://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/european-foreign-policy/development-policy-and-cooperation

Austrian Development Agency (ADA): https://www.entwicklung.at/en

Development Bank of Austria (OeEB): https://www.oe-eb.at

CSO umbrella organisation Global Responsibility: Platform for Development and Humanitarian Aid: https://www.globaleverantwortung.at/global-responsibility-platform-for-development-and-humanitarian-aid

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

Member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1965.

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.