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Insights / Humanitarian & Emergency

How much does Australia give in humanitarian aid?

Ask this yourself

How much of Australia's bilateral aid is committed to humanitarian emergencies rather than long-term development, and has that share changed over the last fifteen years?

Australia committed US$321 million of bilateral ODA to the humanitarian sector in 2024, in constant 2024 prices, which is 10.7% of its bilateral ODA commitments across all sectors. These are commitments — funding signed for, not money paid out — and they exclude core contributions to multilateral agencies.

Bilateral humanitarian ODA commitments
US$321m
2024, constant 2024 prices · −9% on 2023; Aard calculation
Share of bilateral ODA commitments, all sectors
10.7%
2024 · 10.0% in 2010; Aard calculation
Emergency response share of the humanitarian sector
83.9%
2024 · Aard calculation
Bilateral ODA commitments, all sectors
US$3.00bn
2024, constant 2024 prices · US$3.37bn in 2010

1. The level has no clear trend across fifteen years

Australia's of to the humanitarian sector have ranged from US$177 million in 2016 to US$395 million in 2022 with no clear direction, in constant prices. The 2024 figure of US$321 million sits just above the fifteen-year mean of US$292 million — an Aard calculation from the same fifteen values. It counts bilateral flows only, so a funding the same emergency is outside it. The selection carries no recipient or event dimension either, so it shows the shape of the line but cannot say which emergencies moved it.

Australian bilateral humanitarian aid commitments

Constant 2024 prices, the OECD's own base for this dataflow. Bilateral ODA commitments only — commitments are funding signed for, not disbursed, and core funding to multilateral agencies sits outside this sector.

  • Humanitarian aid
  • Fifteen-year average

US$ million, constant prices · Year

OECD, DAC5: Aid (ODA) by sector and provider, 2000-2024 DAC5: Aid (ODA) by sector and provider

Show the numbers
Australian bilateral humanitarian aid commitments
YearHumanitarian aidFifteen-year average
2010336292
2011377292
2012301292
2013245292
2014279292
2015285292
2016177292
2017231292
2018206292
2019260292
2020272292
2021340292
2022395292
2023352292
2024321292

2. A larger slice, on an endpoint comparison

The share tells a different story from the level. Humanitarian took 10.0% of Australia's bilateral in 2010 and 10.7% in 2024, peaking at 14.9% in 2022 and bottoming at 6.4% in 2013 — Aard calculations, humanitarian commitments over commitments to all sectors. The move between the two endpoints is 0.7 points, small against that range. Between them the humanitarian line fell 4.6% and the all-sector total 10.8%, but in 2024 alone the total rose and the share fell.

Humanitarian aid as a share of bilateral aid commitments

Calculated by Aard as humanitarian commitments over commitments to all sectors, both OECD DAC5 bilateral ODA commitments in constant 2024 prices. Sector 1000 'All sectors' contains sector 700, so this is a part over its own whole. The reference line is the unweighted mean of the fifteen annual shares, not a share of the fifteen-year totals.

  • Humanitarian share
  • Fifteen-year average

Per cent of bilateral commitments · Year

OECD, DAC5: Aid (ODA) by sector and provider, 2000-2024 DAC5: Aid (ODA) by sector and provider

Show the numbers
Humanitarian aid as a share of bilateral aid commitments
YearHumanitarian shareFifteen-year average
201010.0%9.4%
201110.1%9.4%
20127.4%9.4%
20136.4%9.4%
20148.1%9.4%
20158.7%9.4%
20166.5%9.4%
20178.6%9.4%
20187.2%9.4%
201910.0%9.4%
20209.2%9.4%
202110.9%9.4%
202214.9%9.4%
202312.7%9.4%
202410.7%9.4%

3. Emergency response dominates, but not uniformly

In 2024 emergency response was US$269 million of the US$321 million total, disaster prevention and preparedness US$47 million and reconstruction US$4.9 million — 83.9%, 14.6% and 1.5%, Aard calculations from the three sub-sectors, which sum to the humanitarian total within the OECD's two-decimal rounding. Response has been the largest component every year, but its share has ranged from 58.3% in 2010 to 91.0% in 2019, so the 2024 split is not a constant of the programme.

Australian humanitarian aid by purpose

Constant 2024 prices. The three purposes are mutually exclusive and sum to the humanitarian aid total in every year shown, within the OECD's two-decimal rounding.

  • Emergency response
  • Disaster prevention and preparedness
  • Other series

US$ million, constant prices · Year

OECD, DAC5: Aid (ODA) by sector and provider, 2000-2024 DAC5: Aid (ODA) by sector and provider

Show the numbers
Australian humanitarian aid by purpose
YearEmergency responseDisaster prevention and preparednessReconstruction relief and rehabilitation
201019635.1105
201127468.934.5
201218476.140.5
201318847.88.4
201422036.822.2
201522934.320.9
201614827.61.8
201720319.68.5
201817817.79.6
201923616.96.5
202020862.41.5
202127842.619.6
202232952.613.1
202328057.714.9
202426946.74.9

4. Development food assistance has been wound down

Development food assistance is a separate DAC sector from humanitarian aid, and Australia has effectively exited it: from a 2010-2024 peak of US$64.1 million in 2017 to US$2.5 million in 2024, the series low, with four consecutive years below US$21 million. What this page cannot tell you is where that activity went: the selection holds two sector aggregates and no modality detail. Treat the decline as a fact about one sector code.

Australian development food assistance commitments

Constant 2024 prices. A separate DAC sector from humanitarian aid, shown against the humanitarian total for scale; the two are mutually exclusive and are not summed or differenced. The 2017 value is the peak of the period shown, not its starting level.

  • Development food assistance
  • Humanitarian aid sector, for scale

US$ million, constant prices · Year

OECD, DAC5: Aid (ODA) by sector and provider, 2000-2024 DAC5: Aid (ODA) by sector and provider

Show the numbers
Australian development food assistance commitments
YearDevelopment food assistanceHumanitarian aid sector, for scale
201016.5336
201153.5377
201235.3301
201340.7245
201425.0279
201527.3285
201647.8177
201764.1231
201864.0206
201945.6260
202039.6272
202120.9340
20224.5395
20235.7352
20242.5321

What to watch for

  • These are bilateral commitments, not disbursements, and not the whole of Australia's humanitarian effort. A commitment is funding signed for in that year; the money may be paid over several years or differ from what is eventually disbursed. Core contributions to UN agencies and the Red Cross movement are counted as multilateral aid and do not appear in this sector at all.
  • Figures are in constant 2024 US dollars on the OECD's own deflator — every observation in the response carries BASE_PER 2024. They are comparable across years but are not the Australian dollar amounts that appear in Commonwealth budget papers, and no Australian-dollar series exists in this dataflow.
  • Every series on this page is OECD DAC5 measure 528, Bilateral ODA commitments, on one basis throughout. The DAC's move from net disbursements to grant equivalents changed the headline ODA measure, not this one, and introduces no break here.
  • The shares, the fifteen-year mean and the purpose percentages are Aard calculations from the cited series, not OECD output; each is stated with its operands and every operand is in the record behind it. The sector totals are revised whenever Australia resubmits to the DAC, and recent years move more than older ones.
  • The OECD labels these years "2024", "2023" and so on. Whether Australia reports to the DAC on calendar years or on its July-to-June financial year could not be established from OECD metadata: the dataflow publishes no Australian-dollar series to reconcile against, its SDMX annotations carry no reporting-year note, and the converged reporting directives were not retrievable. Do not align these years with a specific Commonwealth budget year.

References

Data extracted . Reviewed 2026-09-17 by Aard Data Team. Each numbered entry is the publication that documents the figures; the calls beneath it are the ones the retrieval actually made, and each figure is numbered under its publication — 1.1, 1.2 — and links to the narrowest call that returns it.

  1. [1]OECD, DAC5: Aid (ODA) by sector and provider, 2000-2024
    Vintage: Bilateral ODA commitments by sector, in constant 2024-price US dollars, millions. Commitments are funding signed for in the year, not disbursed, and are not the DAC's headline grant-equivalent measure. Bilateral flows only, so core contributions to multilateral agencies are outside the sector totals. Revised as members resubmit. Whether the OECD's year labels are calendar or Australian financial years is not established - see yearBasis.
    OECD (2026), DAC5: Aid (ODA) by sector and provider, OECD Development Co-operation Directorate (accessed on 16 September 2026). Reuse under the OECD Terms and Conditions.

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