Development cooperation
Development that partner countries own
We finance and deliver projects alongside governments and institutions in partner countries — in education, health, water and economic opportunity — and we report openly on what they achieve.
Our mandate
A small state can be a serious partner
Bahrain will not be the largest donor in the Gulf, and the Agency is not built as though it might be. Its advantage is focus: a small portfolio, decided quickly, in sectors where Bahraini institutions have something specific to contribute.
That means financing which arrives on the timetable a ministry actually works to, and technical cooperation drawn from people who have done the work — regulators, hospital administrators, water engineers, teachers — rather than from a procurement framework.
Priorities
Four sectors, chosen rather than inherited
Concentration is a deliberate choice. An agency of this size spread across a dozen sectors would be a grant window; across four it can hold institutional knowledge and keep it.
Education and skills
Schools and technical institutes, teacher development, and the vocational routes that connect training to work that actually exists.
Health systems
Primary care, diagnostic capacity, and the clinical and administrative training that keeps a facility running after it is built.
Water and climate resilience
Supply, treatment and reuse. Bahrain is among the most water-scarce countries on earth and has had to solve this at home first.
Economic opportunity
Access to finance for small enterprise, financial inclusion, and the regulatory groundwork that lets a market function — the field Bahrain knows best.
How we work
Three instruments
- 01
Concessional loans
Long-tenor finance below market rates, for public infrastructure that will generate the revenue or the savings to repay it.
- 02
Grants
For work that cannot carry debt: feasibility and design, institutional capacity, and recovery after crisis.
- 03
Technical cooperation
Bahraini expertise placed alongside a counterpart institution — secondments, training, and advice on regulation and operations.
What we commit to
Before there is a record, there is a standard
The Agency is new. It has no completed projects to point to, and this page will not pretend otherwise. What it can be held to from the first day is how it intends to work.
Country ownership
Projects are identified and led by the partner institution. We do not arrive with a portfolio looking for somewhere to put it.
Published terms
The terms of every loan and grant are disclosed, including the concessional element. Development finance that cannot be read is not accountable.
Evaluation after handover
Projects are evaluated once they have been running long enough to fail — not at the ribbon-cutting — and the evaluations are published whichever way they go.
Media
Latest
Announcements will be published here.
Working with the Agency
Enquiries from partner governments and institutions, and from suppliers and prospective colleagues, are handled through one office.
Get in touch