Hungarian Development Aid and the EU Global Gateway Initiative: Future Opportunities

Hungarian international development aid distribution is undergoing a natural restructuring process. It also requires organizational, strategic and directional changes, with the Hungary Helps Agency (HHA) folded into the International Development Cooperation Department of the Hungarian Ministry, while some projects are apparently being rescreened due to the new Foreign Ministry leadership’s suspicion of earlier overpricing.

But aside from restructuring and rescreening, how will Hungary’s international aid address the broader challenges of the future? Climate-driven disasters, international instability and a narrowing funding gap is the order of the day, and these are issues that need to be addressed beyond internal restructuring.

One of the ways to expand Hungary’s footprint in international aid, already considered in 2025, was to focus much more on multilateralism. So far, ‘only’ €200 000 EU funds were utilized by Hungary Helps in its programmes. Now, rather than being mostly the vessel of Hungarian state aid and individual donors, the latest Hungarian international development strategy between the years 2026–2030 is outlining a path where the Hungarian state development agencies—at the moment of writing, still HHA as the flagship agency—would participate in the EU Global Gateway initiative, announced in 2022.

This initiative aims to address ‘funding gaps in infrastructure’ for developing countries, strategically countering China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Funding will come from EU agencies and various other EU member-state sources; the point is to pool them and distribute them in a de-risked, structured way. Agencies need to pass a ‘pillar assessment’ before joining. Apparently, Hungary Helps already passed this by late 2025.

‘One of the ways to expand Hungary’s footprint in international aid…was to focus much more on multilateralism’

Drawing on multilateral funds is a long-term goal of Hungarian international development agencies. Such hopes of channelling multilateral funds into Hungarian projects have been entertained since 1982, when Hungary first joined a multilateral financial institution, the World Bank Group. Now, apparently, the difference is that these are not pipe dreams anymore: the regulatory process is already completed, and the soft-power groundwork for a special Hungarian approach to international development is already in place, done with the Hungary Helps brand, well known for one reason or another.

The question, of course, is how and whether Gateway Europe projects can be integrated into such international development activities.

From a Hungarian perspective, it is unquestionable that the country needs access to and participation in such initiatives, given its relatively small size. Hungarian international aid agencies cannot punch above their weight in terms of financial resources alone. Whatever Hungary does on its own will remain a drop in the ocean of global crises and underdevelopment.

The fact that Hungary has implemented Official Development Assistance (ODA) programmes for years is commendable, but the next step is to consider where its comparative advantages lie. To truly punch above its weight, Hungary should focus on leveraging its soft power and networks to connect recipients with donors. Those donors need not necessarily be found in Hungary itself.

Participating in the Gateway Europe can (but not definitely will) mean focusing more on financial additionality as well. The Gateway Europe encompasses many projects, from investing in critical raw material supply chains and electrical infrastructure development to funding UNICEF projects in perinatal care for mothers in Nigeria, clearly focusing on a range of financial instruments.

Financial additionality would mean precisely this: broadening the range of financial instruments used in aid. These instruments, in turn, need to be arranged structurally between Hungary Helps or its successor and other development branches of the Hungarian state.

Opportunities explored need not be limited to aid grants, but also to investment and loans in areas where Hungary targets its development assistance, combining the various instruments to make a bigger impact. This would mean not only that the resources are more concentrated, but also that a selected partner can easily apply for a financial instrument appropriate to its needs.

Recent research by the Danube Institute in Nigeria showed that even when the development strategy is already clarified (eg, helping Christian communities develop resilience to insecurity), the needs of local actors cannot be measured by the size or targets of grants. Still, their needs range from simple grants to entire enterprises requiring investment and loans. Financial additionality, using a range of instruments, not just grant aid, could help cover these funding gaps while targeting selected communities and/or populations with development resources.

‘Financial additionality, using a range of instruments, not just grant aid, could help cover these funding gaps’

At present, these instruments are managed by different agencies of the Hungarian state. The grant component has so far been administered by Hungary Helps. There is also a tied-aid loan mechanism, under which recipients are required to procure goods and services from Hungarian companies as part of the project.

Consolidating these and other instruments under a single institutional framework may not necessarily be the optimal solution. However, it would be worthwhile to examine the possibility, drawing where appropriate on the experiences of other countries.

Drawing on EU Global Gateway funds across all of this would enhance the impact of restructured Hungarian international aid, directly positioning Hungarians as actors in a larger donor network. Such regions can be West Africa with a focus on the well-developed Nigerian network, and Central Asia with its flourishing ties with Hungary.

In both cases, additionality can potentially mean mapping where professional networks with familiarity with Hungarian professional culture are located. With this abstraction, I refer to those alumni of Hungarian universities who studied here in the last decades by the dozens, if not hundreds. While university scholarships rarely counted among ‘hard’ instruments, this would be an area where Hungary can explore its added value in the framework of the Global Gateway.

What is also important, though, is that Hungary does not lose focus on identifying gaps in aid that other actors ignore and asserts its specific objectives in aid. It is not a default, of course, that some special ‘national interest’ should be asserted in every instance of executing a policy of international relations, simply for the sake of distinguishing ourselves. Still, as Hungary enters the EU Global Gateway projects, we should keep in mind that it is a small country that needs to define several things for itself.

What is the reason for engaging in projects with a global reach? Why should we execute such projects of considerable resources in developing countries, which are quite abstractly understood by the populace of Hungary? If the point is simply to keep in line with the West, that is also a reasonable goal, but a coherent strategy still needs to be developed rather than continuing to be a passive donor for a collection of unconnected projects.

‘What is the reason for engaging in projects with a global reach?’

To explain the importance of these activities, Hungary’s partners could also play a greater role. Explaining to a society that has only recently transitioned from perceiving itself as a recipient of development assistance to becoming an ODA donor why it should contribute resources to developing regions is an important task.

Such a process could help Hungary develop a stronger understanding of itself as an active participant in global society. It would not only foster greater appreciation of the importance of assisting others but also help place this new role within the broader context of the country’s cherished national history.

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