The Dutch minister for Development Cooperation, Ben Knapen, repairs a budget cut of € 35 million for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) including HIV/AIDS. Instead he invests an extra €8 million. This is mentioned in a letter send to the Dutch Parliament.
Herewith the Minister wants to make the case that SRHR is a priority for the Dutch government in development cooperation, as was announced earlier. The fact that SRHR is a priority for the Dutch government was put into question by Rutgers WPF, its Alliance partners and the Dutch Parliament when the budget for 2012 became public in September. The extra investments in 3 other priority areas for Dutch development cooperation, to know (1) food security and economic development, (2) water, (3) peace and security, were crystal clear in the proposed 2012 budget. However the budget line of which SRHR is part of -the SRHR, HIV/AIDS and health budget line- was cut with 35 million due to the economic crisis.
Rutgers WPF and its SRHR Alliance partners analysed the budget and mobilised the general public and the Dutch parliament. Parliamentarians of both the coalition as well as the opposition filed amendments to restore the budget during the following budget discussions in the Dutch parliament. Minister Knapen reacted positively and explained his intentions for reparation in a letter. Contributions for GAVI and the Global Fund for 2012 will be paid this year, leaving budgetary space for an amount of 35 million in the budget for 2012. Hence the programme as was developed before the budget cut can be executed in 2012. In addition Knapen is willing to add an extra 8 million to the budget line for SRHR as a consequence of one of the amendments.
The vote on these amendments is 21-22 of December. Since almost all parties in the parliament are supportive of SRHR probably the passing of the 8 million amendment will not pose much problems.
