Strait of Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz, the key maritime trade route through which a third of the world’s crude oil supplies were being transported in 2025 remains blocked. Its blockade exacerbates existing crises, exposing energy dependencies and trade-based fragilities. Increasing energy prices, but also food and fertiliser scarcity, inflationary pressures and decreasing remittances from the Gulf States hit the societies of low-income economies the hardest, threatening to further halt progress towards sustainable development.

IDOS analyses the ongoing situation from a development perspective. The field of development cooperation is both highly impacted by the current crisis, with a risk of further shifts towards short-term coping, emergency relief and humanitarian aid taking away resources for mid- to long-term transformative and structural change. At the same time, it also offers ways to address the crisis through strengthening and diversification of energy systems and building resilient cooperation architectures for the future.