Qatar
Qatar’s development and humanitarian assistance align with its National Vision 2030, which aims to make the country a prominent actor in international co-operation and is guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Qatar’s official development assistance (ODA) has increased in recent years and reached USD 676.6 million in 2021, representing 0.38% of its gross national income (GNI). Qatar’s ODA has been increasing consistently over the last years and is being provided mainly through the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD).
The QFFD is a government entity and works through grants, concessional and commercial loans, guarantees, and investments. The QFFD promotes human development and poverty alleviation by strengthening health services and educational systems, supporting economic development, mobilising humanitarian aid, and enhancing communities’ resilience towards climate change. Qatar’s total ODA (USD 820 million, preliminary data) increased in 2022, representing 0.46% of GNI.
Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.
The QFFD is committed to development effectiveness and humanitarian principles and has been implementing a range of initiatives to promote co-ordinated, effective and sustainable support to communities and countries in need. The QFFD engages in partnerships with multilateral agencies, bilateral providers, the private sector and civil society organisations (CSOs). The QFFD targets projects in education, healthcare, social services, infrastructure, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and economic development for vulnerable populations. The fund places importance on innovation and maintaining predictability and flexibility in its financing of development and humanitarian interventions.
Qatar provided USD 820.3 million (preliminary data) of ODA in 2022 (USD 849.3 million in constant terms), representing 0.46% of GNI1. This was an increase of 25.5% in real terms in volume and an increase in share of GNI from 2021. ODA volume has overall increased over the last few years. Total ODA on a grant-equivalent basis has the same value as net ODA under the cash-flow methodology used in the past, as Qatar provides only grants2.
Qatar provided a higher share of its ODA bilaterally in 2021. Gross bilateral ODA was 90.5% of total ODA. Fourteen per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Qatar allocated 9.5% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.
In 2021, Qatar provided USD 151.4 million of gross ODA to the multilateral system, a fall of 4.4% in real terms from 2020. Of this, USD 64.5 million was core multilateral ODA (an increase of 22% compared to 2020 in real terms). The remainder of USD 86.9 million was earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. Project-type funding earmarked for a specific theme and/or country accounted for 79.2% of Qatar’s non-core contributions and 20.8% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).
Ninety-two per cent of Qatar’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2021 was allocated to UN entities (74.8%) and other multilateral institutions (17.2%), most notably Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The UN system received 74.8% of Qatar’s multilateral contributions, over a half (53.4%) of which in the form of earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 113.3 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Qatar’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were WFP (USD 45.0 million), UNDP (USD 13.0 million) and UNRWA (USD 12.8 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, Qatar’s bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 612.1 million of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 6.3% in real terms from 2020. In 2021, Qatar focused most of its bilateral ODA on reducing inequalities, quality education and good health and well-being in addition to the Sustainable Development Goals for poverty reduction. In 2021, country programmable aid was 34.3% of Qatar’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to a non-DAC country average of 46.4%.
In 2021, Qatar channelled bilateral ODA mostly through public institutions, NGOs and multilateral organisations, as earmarked funding. Technical assistance made up 6.5% of gross ODA in 2021.
Civil society organisations
In 2021, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 91.9 million of gross bilateral ODA, almost all of which was provided as earmarked funding. From 2020 to 2021, contributions for CSOs decreased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 18.1% to 15.0%. 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, Qatar’s bilateral ODA was primarily focused on the Middle East. USD 397.8 million was allocated to the Middle East and USD 93.2 million to Africa, accounting respectively for 65.0% and 15.2% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 75.4 million (12.3%) was allocated to Asia.
In 2021, 79.4% of gross bilateral ODA went to Qatar’s top 10 recipients. Its top 10 recipients are in the Middle East, South Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa. The share of gross bilateral ODA that was not allocated by country was 5.8%.
In 2021, the least developed countries (LDCs) received 23.0% of Qatar’s gross bilateral ODA (USD 141.0 million). This is greater than the non-DAC country average of 13.7%. Other low-income countries (LICs) were provided 2.4% of Qatar’s gross bilateral ODA. Qatar allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (68.8%) to lower middle-income countries in 2021, noting that 5.8% was unallocated by income group. Qatar allocated 9.8% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2021, equal to USD 60 million. Moreover, SIDS received USD 1.8 million, representing 0.3% of Qatar’s gross bilateral ODA.
Fragile contexts
Support to fragile contexts reached USD 520.9 million in 2021, representing 85.1% of Qatar’s gross bilateral ODA. Seventy per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, increasing from 59% in 2020.
Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.
Sectors
In 2021, less than half of Qatar’s bilateral ODA was allocated to social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 34% of bilateral ODA (USD 208.4 million), with a strong focus on support to education (USD 130 million) and health (USD 67.7 million). ODA for economic infrastructure and services totalled USD 2.5% of bilateral ODA (USD 15.1 million), primarily focusing on transport and storage. Bilateral humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 367.4 million (60% of bilateral ODA). In 2021, earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused on health (USD 25.9 million) and humanitarian assistance (USD 50.1 million).
The QFFD is a public corporation and is affiliated with Qatar’s Council of Ministers. The fund, which provides grants, concessional loans and other forms of development finance on behalf of the state of Qatar, is overseen by a Board of Directors headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 2022, the QFFD focused on several key institutional initiatives. To deliver on the SDGs, and through a results-based approach, the QFFD has strengthened its strategic partnerships on both the multilateral and bilateral levels by co-funding humanitarian and development interventions and by providing multi-year unearmarked support and core contributions to several United Nations agencies.
In addition, the fund continued improving its governance framework for better policy alignment and aid predictability. It also enhanced its internal efficiency and accountability through digitisation and other organisation-wide development initiatives and capacity-building programmes. Finally, the QFFD further strengthened its internal procedures to ensure compliance and adherence to adopted policies, national laws and regulations, and international good practices, particularly those related to combating terrorist financing and extreme violence, money laundering, and other illicit financing schemes.
Qatar Fund for Development annual reports 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021: https://qatarfund.org.qa/en/annual-reports
Qatar became a Participant of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in 2016. In 2018, Qatar participated in the DAC peer review of Switzerland as an observer, in 2022/23 in the DAC Peer Review of The Netherlands. Qatar started reporting to the OECD at activity level in 2020.
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.