Greece
Greece experienced a debt crisis and recession in the past decade that has resulted in significant cuts to official development assistance (ODA). Greece’s development co-operation is primarily comprised of multilateral expenditure, principally to European Union (EU) institutions, and in-donor refugee costs. Greece’s total ODA (USD 305.4 million, preliminary data) decreased in 2022 due to a decrease in its bilateral and multilateral ODA. It represented 0.14% of gross national income (GNI).
Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.
The 2021 Law on Development Co-operation and the 2022-25 National Programme guide Greece’s development co-operation. The programme sets out a pragmatic geographic concentration on seven countries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea as first priorities and an additional eight as second priorities; all countries have strong cultural ties to Greece in South East Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, the Black Sea and sub-Saharan Africa. Greece’s priorities are poverty, health, education and sustainable economic development, while climate, governance, gender and digital transformation are to be addressed across the programme. While Hellenic Aid is responsible for planning and formulating Greece’s development co-operation strategy, the majority of Greece’s ODA is disbursed by the Ministry of Finance to EU institutions.
Greece’s multilateral expenditure is almost exclusively comprised of core contributions, with the only non-core contributions being programmatic funding to EU institutions. Greece seeks to resolve challenges facing the Mediterranean, South East Europe and the Middle East and advocates for a safe marine environment in the eastern Mediterranean.
Findings from OECD-DAC reviews
The OECD-DAC 2022 mid-term review noted Greece’s efforts to reform its legislative, institutional and internal systems – providing the building blocks for effective development co-operation once the bilateral programme resumes. It also highlighted Greece’s improvements in streamlining the management of migration. Given the context of a decreasing ODA budget, with a very limited bilateral budget beyond in-donor refugee costs, Greece has, to date, limited scope to test these reforms. Learn more about Greece’s 2022 mid-term review.
Greece provided USD 305.4 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2022 (USD 318.2 million in constant terms), representing 0.14% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 6.6% in real terms in volume and a decrease in share of GNI from 0.16% in 2021. The ODA budget has decreased slightly for the fourth year in a row after the 2019 increase because of in-donor refugee costs. While the government has not stated what ODA/GNI ratio it wants to achieve, Greece is committed, at the European level, to collectively achieving a 0.7% ODA/GNI by 2030. Greece provided all of its ODA as grants in 2021.2
Greece’s ODA is yet to recover from significant cuts in public sector expenditure following the global financial crisis. Greece ranks 30th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries when ODA is taken as a share of GNI.
Greece is committed to several international targets, Development Assistance Committee standards and recommendations. Learn more about DAC recommendations.
Greece provided a higher share of its ODA multilaterally in 2021. Gross bilateral ODA was 21.9% of total ODA. Twenty per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Greece allocated 78.1% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.
Greece did not report preliminary estimates on ODA to Ukraine in 2022. In 2021, Greece provided USD 0.7 million in ODA to Ukraine.
In 2022, Greece provided USD 20.1 million in ODA for the COVID-19 response. Regarding COVID-19 vaccines, donations of excess doses to developing countries accounted for USD 20.1 million of ODA. In 2021, Greece’s total bilateral support for the COVID-19 response was USD 29.4 million.
In 2021, Greece provided USD 281 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 8.3% in real terms from 2020. Of this, USD 266.4 million was core multilateral ODA, while non-core contributions were earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. Project-type funding earmarked for a specific theme and/or country accounted for 4.1% of Greece’s non-core contributions and 95.9% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).
Eighty-one per cent of Greece’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2021 was allocated to EU Institutions.
The UN system received 9.2% of Greece’s multilateral contributions, mainly in the form of earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 25.8 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Greece’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were UNEP (USD 9 million), Montreal Protocol (USD 8.6 million) and UNDPO-UN Peacekeeping Operations (USD 4.2 million).
See the section on Geographic and sectoral focus of ODA for the breakdown of bilateral allocations, including ODA earmarked through the multilateral development system. Learn more about multilateral development finance.
In 2021, Greece’s bilateral spending declined compared to the previous year. It provided USD 74.5 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented a decrease of 17.1% in real terms from 2020. In 2021, Greece focused most of its bilateral ODA on Reduced inequalities, Health and well-being and quality education.
In 2021, country programmable aid was 41.9% of Greece’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to a DAC country average of 45.2%. In-donor refugee costs were USD 36.6 million in 2021, a decrease of 57.1% in real terms over 2020, and represented 49.1% of Greece’s gross bilateral ODA.
Greece disbursed USD 0.7 million for triangular co-operation in 2021. Its regional priority is Africa, with a focus on reconstruction relief & rehabilitation. Learn more about triangular co-operation and specific projects at the OECD’s voluntary triangular co-operation project repository.
In 2021, Greece channelled bilateral ODA mainly through the public sector. Technical co-operation made up 0.5% of gross ODA in 2021.
Civil society organisations
In 2021, none of Greece’s ODA was provided to or through civil society organisations (CSOs). Greece has not accepted funding proposals from CSOs since approximately 2007 and the last disbursements were in 2017. Learn more about ODA allocations to and through CSOs, civil society engagement in development co-operation, and the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2021, Greece’s bilateral ODA was primarily focused on Africa. USD 14.7 million was allocated to Africa and USD 9.4 million to Asia (excluding the Middle East), accounting respectively for 19.7% and 12.6% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 7 million (9.4%) was allocated to Europe. Asia was also the main regional recipient of Greece’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, mainly through the COVAX mechanism.
In 2021, 35% of gross bilateral ODA went to Greece’s top 10 recipients, for which support mainly consisted of vaccine donations. The share of gross bilateral ODA that was not allocated by country was 53.1%, with 92.4% of this unallocated bilateral ODA spent on refugees in the donor country.
In 2021, the least developed countries (LDCs) received 8.6% of Greece’s gross bilateral ODA (USD 6.4 million). This is lower than the DAC average of 22.9%. Greece allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (25%) to lower middle-income countries in 2021, noting that 53.1% was unallocated by income group. Greece allocated 9.2% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2021, equal to USD 6.8 million. Greece allocated 0.2% of gross bilateral ODA to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2021, equal to USD 0.1 million.
Fragile contexts
Support to fragile contexts reached USD 11.5 million in 2021, representing 15.4% of Greece’s gross bilateral ODA. Six per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, decreasing from 59.1% in 2020.
Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.
Sectors
In 2021, close to half of Greece’s bilateral ODA was allocated to social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 43.5% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 31.4 million), with a strong focus on support for health (USD 29.5 million) and education (USD 1.8 million). Commitments in other sectors mainly relate to in-donor refugee costs (USD 36.8 million). Bilateral humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 0.7 million (1% of bilateral ODA). In 2021, earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused on health, emergency response and general budget support as part of the COVID response.
Gender equality
In 2020-21, Greece committed 1.9% of its screened bilateral allocable aid to gender equality and women’s empowerment, as either a principal or significant objective (down from 15.2% in 2018-19, compared with the 2020-21 DAC average of 44.4%). This is equal to USD 0.3 million of bilateral ODA in support of gender equality. No screened bilateral allocable aid committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment as a principal objective in 2020-21, compared with the DAC average of 4.5%. Greece includes gender equality objectives in 60.8% of its ODA for humanitarian aid, compared with the 2020-21 DAC average of 17.5%. Greece screens all activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2020-21). Learn more about ODA focused on gender equality, the DAC Network on Gender Equality and the DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation in Development Co-operation.
Environment
In 2020-21, Greece committed low levels of bilateral allocable aid (0.084%) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions (DAC average of 34.3%), up from 0.004% in 2018-19.
Learn more about climate-related development finance and the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
In 2021, with the new Law (4781/2021) regulating the Ministry of Foreign Affairs function, the status of the former Directorate General of International Development Cooperation-Hellenic Aid (YDAS) as an independent unit within the Ministry shifted to that of a Directorate General of the Ministry, becoming an integral part of it. The Directorate-General for Development and Humanitarian Aid (Hellenic Aid) is the national authority and the coordinating mechanism for planning and shaping the development co-operation strategy. It promotes, manages and implements the national development co-operation policy. In 2020, the majority of Greece’s ODA was disbursed by the Ministry of Finance to EU institutions. The remainder was disbursed by other ministries and agencies, primarily on in-donor refugee costs. Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has 25 staff working on development co-operation, 16% of which are serving abroad.
Representatives of CSOs and the private sector engage with the government within the National Advisory Committee on Development Cooperation to shape the Hellenic development co-operation priorities and strategy.
Internal systems and processes help ensure the effective delivery of Greece’s development co-operation. Select features are shown in the table below. The 2022 OECD-DAC mid-term review noted that Greece’s efforts to strengthen due diligence mechanisms and evaluation capacity would be tested as Greece progressively rebuilds its bilateral programme.
The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation monitoring exercise tracks the implementation of the effectiveness commitments. Following a reform of the exercise during 2020-22, the 4th global monitoring round (2023-26) has resumed.
2021 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Greece: https://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-reviews/DAC-mid-term-Greece-2022.pdf
2019 OECD-DAC peer review of Greece: https://www.oecd.org/dac/oecd-development-co-operation-peer-reviews-greece-2019-9789264311893-en.htm
Directorate General of International Development Cooperation-Hellenic Aid: https://www.mfa.gr/en/the-ministry/structure/hellenic-aid.html
Member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1999.
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 2019 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.