Development Co‑operation Profiles: Luxembourg
Table of contents
Luxembourg’s development co-operation focuses on access to basic social services, humanitarian assistance and sustainable finance. Luxembourg is consistently among the most generous Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members relative to its gross national income (GNI), including in allocating official development assistance (ODA) to least developed countries (LDCs). Furthermore, in-donor refugee costs and climate finance are accounted for outside ODA to avoid a crowding out effect. Luxembourg’s total ODA (USD 694.2 million, preliminary data) increased in 2025, representing 0.99% of GNI.
This profile presents verified data on Luxembourg’s development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Luxembourg’s Development Co-operation Strategy, “The Road to 2030”, prioritises four themes: 1) access to high-quality basic social services; 2) the socio-economic integration of women and young people; 3) inclusive and sustainable growth; and 4) inclusive governance. It focuses on a small number of partner countries, underpinned by indicative country programmes. As a result of the political decision to suspend bilateral co-operation in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, Luxembourg had to redirect about 30% of its bilateral commitments in 2024 via different channels and to other partner countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Road to 2030 affirms Luxembourg’s strong support for multilateral institutions. The United Nations (UN) system and the European Union (EU) are its key partners. Luxembourg actively uses its role as an international financial centre to promote sustainable finance. Luxembourg has introduced a sustainability check for all new regulations to improve policy coherence for sustainable development. Luxembourg’s 2022 Humanitarian Action Strategy commits to allocating 15% of its overall bilateral ODA to humanitarian actions – a target that it has systematically surpassed in recent years.
The 2025 OECD-DAC Peer Review praised Luxembourg for its strong support to the poorest countries and the most vulnerable people and for allocating about 1% of GNI to ODA. The review stressed the need for a whole-of-government approach to address fragility and stronger internal co-ordination for multilateral partnerships. Finally, it recommended greater private sector engagement driven by the local private sector, and prioritising policy coherence, for example to ensure that financial sector activities align with sustainable development objectives. The Peer Review found that Luxembourg had fully or partially implemented 12 of the 13 recommendations of the 2017 Peer Review.
Discover insights from Luxembourg’s 2025 Peer Review, and learn from Luxembourg’s practices in Development Co-operation Tools Insights Practices.
Luxembourg provided USD 694.2 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2025 (USD 649.8 million in constant terms), representing 0.99% of GNI.1 This was an increase of 8.9% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2024. Consistently providing around 1% of GNI as ODA, Luxembourg has exceeded the 0.7% UN target since 2000. Luxembourg is in line with its domestic (1%) and EU commitments to collectively achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio by 2030. Within Luxembourg’s ODA portfolio in 2024, 100% was provided in the form of grants.
In 2025, Luxembourg ranked 2nd among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries when ODA is taken as a share of GNI and 22nd among DAC members in terms of ODA volume. With 0.40% ODA/GNI committed to LDCs in 2024, Luxembourg surpasses the 0.2% UN target and was the DAC member that allocated the highest share of GNI to LDCs.
Luxembourg is committed to several international targets and DAC standards and recommendations. Learn more about DAC Recommendations.
Notes: This table only includes information about ODA data-related DAC recommendations. ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income; DAC: Development Assistance Committee.
Luxembourg provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2024. Gross bilateral ODA was 70.8% of total ODA disbursements. Of this, 25.3% was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, Luxembourg provided USD 281.3 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 1.5% in real terms from 2023. Of this, USD 174.3 million was core multilateral ODA (29.2% of total ODA), while USD 107 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 25.1% of Luxembourg’s non-core contributions, and 74.9% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).
The United Nations (UN) system received 52.5% of Luxembourg’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 93.9 million (63.6%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 147.7 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Luxembourg’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the United Nations Population Fund (USD 21.4 million), the World Food Programme (USD 17.3 million) and the United Nations Development Programme (USD 14.4 million).
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 by exploring the DAC members’ use of the multilateral system dashboard.
In 2024, Luxembourg’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 422.7 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 4.1% in real terms from 2023.
In 2024, country programmable aid amounted to USD 225.2 million, or 53.3% of Luxembourg’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 46.5%.
Luxembourg’s humanitarian aid was USD 93.4 million, or 22.1% of gross bilateral ODA.
Luxembourg disbursed USD 0.1 million for triangular co-operation in 2024. Its regional priority is Latin America and Caribbean, with a focus on banking and financial services. Learn more about triangular co-operation.
In 2024, Luxembourg channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through public sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and multilateral organisations. Technical co-operation made up 23.5% of gross ODA in 2024.
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 114.3 million of gross bilateral ODA, of which 3.2% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 3.1% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 23.9% was channelled through CSOs to implement projects initiated by the provider (earmarked funding). From 2023 to 2024, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs decreased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 28.1% to 27%.
Learn more by reading the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid and by exploring the ODA to civil society organisations dashboard.
In 2024, Luxembourg’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on countries in Africa. USD 182.3 million was allocated to countries in Africa and USD 49.1 million to Asia (excluding the Middle East), accounting respectively for 43.1% and 11.6% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 45.6 million was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 66.8% was for Ukraine). Countries in Africa were also the main recipients of Luxembourg’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations. Allocations correspond to its policy priorities.
In 2024, 49.1% of gross bilateral ODA went to Luxembourg’s top 10 recipients. Its top 10 recipients are all priority or project countries, except Ukraine. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 31.5%, of which 0.1% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.
In 2024, Luxembourg allocated 0.4% of its GNI to the least developed countries (LDCs). Luxembourg allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (42.5%) to least developed countries in 2024 (USD 179.6 million), noting that 31.5% was unallocated by income group. Additionally, Luxembourg allocated 28.2% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2024, equal to USD 119.4 million. Luxembourg allocated 5.8% of gross bilateral ODA to small island developing states in 2024, equal to USD 24.5 million.
The distribution of Luxembourg’s ODA in net terms in relation to “ODA per person in extreme poverty”2 was USD 0.3 in LDCs, USD 0.3 in lower middle-income countries and USD 0.4 in upper middle-income countries.
In 2025, Luxembourg provided USD 48 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion, a 47.5% increase from 2024 in real terms. USD 2.7 million of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2025, a 51.2% decrease in real terms from 2024.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 165.7 million in 2024, representing 39.4% of Luxembourg’s gross bilateral ODA. Of this ODA, 21.8% was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, a decrease from 25.9% in 2023, while 6.1% was allocated to peace, an increase from 5.8% in 2023. Conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, represented 0.8% of gross bilateral ODA, increasing from 0.3% in 2023.
Learn more about the States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the largest focus of Luxembourg’s bilateral ODA was social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 39.9% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 168.6 million), with a strong focus on support to education (USD 62.4 million), health and population (USD 50.9 million) and government and civil society (USD 32.7 million). ODA for humanitarian assistance totalled USD 93.4 million, with a focus on emergency response (USD 84.5 million). Other macro sectors amounted to USD 76 million (18% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations also focused on social sectors and other macro sectors in 2024.
In the period 2023-2024, Luxembourg committed 36.4% of screened bilateral allocable ODA to gender equality and women’s empowerment compared to 35.3% in 2021-2022 and a DAC average of 48.2% in 2023-2024. This is equal to USD 143.2 million of screened bilateral allocable ODA in support of gender equality on average per year. In addition:
The share of screened bilateral allocable ODA committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment as a principal objective was 6.6% in 2023-2024, compared with the DAC average of 4.2%.
Luxembourg includes gender equality objectives in 0.6% of ODA for humanitarian aid, below the 2023-2024 DAC average of 21.5%.
Luxembourg screens virtually all bilateral allocable ODA against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2023-2024).
Luxembourg committed USD 3.3 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls, and USD 0.5 million to support women’s rights organisations and movements, and government institutions on average per year in 2023-2024.
Learn more by reading the DAC Recommendation on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance and the DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation in Development Co-operation, and by exploring the development finance for gender equality dashboard.
In 2023-2024, Luxembourg committed 24.4% of its total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 96 million) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, down from 27.5% in 2021-2022. The DAC average was 39%. In addition:
3.8% of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 11.2%.
10.8% of total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 42.4 million) focused on climate change overall (the DAC average was 35.4%), down from 12.1% in 2021-2022. Luxembourg had a greater focus on adaptation (10.6%) than on mitigation (6.3%) in 2023-2024.
4% of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 15.6 million) focused on biodiversity overall (the DAC average was 8.6%), up from 3.5% in 2021-2022.
3.8% of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 15 million) focused on desertification overall (the DAC average was 4.2%), up from 3.6% in 2021-2022.
Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
In 2024, Luxembourg:
Allocated 4.6% of its bilateral ODA (USD 19.5 million) to core poverty-reducing sectors as defined by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1.a.1. This indicator captures grants to basic social services (such as basic health and education, water supply and sanitation, multisector aid for basic social services) and development food aid. In addition, 0.2% of Luxembourg’s bilateral ODA (USD 0.7 million) went to social protection support. Learn more by exploring the Reducing poverty and inequalities through ODA data explainer.
Committed USD 6.2 million (1.6% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to address the immediate or underlying determinants of malnutrition in developing countries across a variety of sectors, such as banking and financial services, health, and government and civil society.
Committed USD 1.4 million (0.4% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to the mobilisation of domestic resources in developing countries. Regarding the payment of local tax and customs duties for ODA-funded goods and services, Luxembourg typically seeks exemptions, although exceptions exist. It makes information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.
Committed USD 66.9 million (17.6% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy in 2024. Learn more by exploring the Aid for Trade dashboard.
In 2024, total official and private flows from Luxembourg to developing countries amounted to USD 706.9 million in net terms. Official sources accounted for USD 596.5 million, while USD 110.4 million originated from private sources.
To help build markets in developing countries and incentivise greater mobilisation of private resources for development, many providers, including Luxembourg, have established development finance institutions and similar vehicles that extend private sector instruments (PSI). The Female Entrepreneurship Fund was assessed as an ODA-eligible PSI vehicle. Luxembourg does not account its PSI in ODA.
Luxembourg uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2024, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Cooperation and Foreign Trade (MFA) mobilised USD 14.4 million from the private sector through simple co-financing. This constituted a 36.4% decrease compared to 2023.
Private finance mobilised by Luxembourg in 2023-2024 mainly targeted the LDCs and low-income countries, representing 15% of its total mobilised. Only 10.4% of total mobilised private finance during this period benefited middle-income countries, noting that 74.6% was unallocated by income.
Mobilised private finance by Luxembourg in 2023-2024 was mostly unallocated or unspecified by sector at the investment stage (51.7%). Furthermore, over this period, 0.9% of Luxembourg’s total mobilised private finance was for climate action.
Learn more by exploring the Mobilisation of private finance for development dashboard.
Total official support for sustainable development (TOSSD) is an international statistical standard that monitors and increases the transparency of all official and officially supported resources for financing the SDGs received by developing countries (Pillar 1) and for addressing global challenges (Pillar 2). In 2024, activities reported by Luxembourg as TOSSD totalled USD 648.2 million, marking a 1% decrease compared with the previous year.3 Luxembourg’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals) and SDG 5 (gender equality).
Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.
Luxembourg’s development co-operation is comprised of the MFA, the implementing agency – Luxembourg Development Agency (LuxDev) and the Ministry of Finance. The Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs at the MFA is responsible for designing and implementing Luxembourg’s development co-operation policy while the development co-operation agency, LuxDev, executes around one-third of Luxembourg’s bilateral ODA on behalf of the state and implements programmes for DAC partners. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for multilateral initiatives with international financial institutions and leads work on sustainable finance.
The Directorate for Development Cooperation is the MFA’s largest department, with 56 staff. LuxDev employs approximately 70 staff in Luxembourg, plus technical assistants and locally employed staff in country offices.
The main mechanism for exchanging with stakeholders is the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Development Cooperation, which regularly associates civil society representatives, and a regular multi‑stakeholder conference, the “Assises de la Coopération”. CSOs active in development co-operation, humanitarian assistance and global citizenship education co-ordinate under the umbrella body, the Cercle de Coopération des ONGD.
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development placed a renewed emphasis on strengthening the effectiveness of all forms of development co-operation by upholding and elevating the Effectiveness Principles. Adherence to these principles is measured through the partner country-led monitoring exercise of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC).
Notes: The global aggregate results of the 4th GPEDC monitoring round (2023-2026) will be published in the forthcoming 2026 GPEDC Global Monitoring Report. Learn more about partner countries’ participation, progress and country-specific results by exploring the GPEDC Global Dashboard. CRS: Creditor Reporting System; IATI: International Aid Transparency Initiative.
Internal systems and processes help ensure the delivery of Luxembourg’s development co-operation. The table below highlights select features.
Access the full list of development cooperation providers at: Development Co-operation Profiles.
2025 OECD-DAC Peer Review of Luxembourg: https://doi.org/10.1787/3713cf73-en.
2020 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Luxembourg: https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/13/en/pdf.
CSO umbrella organisation Le Cercle de Coopération des ONGD: https://cercle.lu.
Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs: https://cooperation.gouvernement.lu/en/cooperation-au-developpement.html.
Luxembourg Development Agency (LuxDev): https://luxdev.lu/en/home.
Luxembourg has been a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1992.
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 ODA, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Member countries of the OECD.
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.
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← 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. Aid per person in extreme poverty is calculated by dividing net ODA (bilateral and imputed multilateral) by the population in extreme poverty in each country. It estimates how much ODA each person in extreme poverty would receive if total ODA was divided evenly among the extreme poor. This metric does not measure the amount of ODA actually received by each person in extreme poverty, nor does it measure how much ODA goes to poverty reduction. It instead highlights patterns in total ODA allocations relative to the number of people living in extreme poverty in each country. Group averages are calculated based on a weighted average of aid per person in extreme poverty and the number of people in extreme poverty for each country in the group. See the methodological notes for further details.
← 3. This amount does not include mobilised private finance by Luxembourg.