The Euro-Mediterranean region is facing overlapping and mutually reinforcing crises: protracted conflicts, growing climate vulnerability and water stress, demographic pressures, and widening socio-economic inequalities. At the very moment when these challenges intensify, the international system of development cooperation itself is entering what many observers describe as an existential crisis – not only because of shrinking budgets, but because the rationale, legitimacy and governance of aid are being questioned.

Recent analyses show that official development assistance (ODA) has begun to fall after years of growth, with a 7.1% decline in 2024 and 23.1% in 2025, the largest annual contraction on record and a second consecutive year of decline, bringing ODA to where it stood at the start of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development¹. This is largely driven by reductions among major OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors, including key EU member states, while a 5.8% reduction in net ODA is anticipated for 2026, excluding the potential impact of the ongoing crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

In the Euro-Mediterranean space, this double crisis – of context and of scope – is particularly acute. Mediterranean partners navigate fiscal stress, climate-driven risks, food and energy shocks, while also facing the consequences of wars and displacement. The humanitarian emergency both in Palestine and Lebanon illustrate the scale of needs and the political sensitivity of aid in the region. The EU and its member states are meanwhile under pressure from domestic constituencies, increased defence spending, and competing global priorities, even if they remain the main long-term cooperation partner for many Southern Mediterranean countries.

Against this backdrop, the XVI Euromed Survey proposes to focus on “Development cooperation in crisis – future scenarios for the Euro-Mediterranean region”. The aim is not only to map perceptions of current trends, but also to explore possible scenarios for the future of cooperation in the region and identify opportunities and orientations that can help donors and development cooperation agencies (and other development actors) to take advantage of the current shifts and adapt their strategies and instruments.

Most of the questions are multiple-choice with predefined answers. However, we have also provided some space for open answers and comments, which are of particular importance in this exercise. All your comments and recommendations will be carefully processed.

If you are unable to complete the Survey all at once, when logging out, the last question completed will be registered. When you return to the questionnaire, you will automatically be taken to the last question you have left incomplete.

The questionnaire offers the possibility to revise and correct answers you have already completed. When logging out, the last question completed will be registered.

^[1] https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/official-development-assistance-oda.html

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