Netherlands

Country Profile

The debate about development cooperation is already going on for some years and there seem to be increasing doubts about its effectiveness. The media have openly questioned the impact of aid and there is particular disappointment with the situation in Africa. A very critical report was published by the Scientific Council for Government Policy in January 2010. This report influenced  the new coalition government which started in October 2010, and instead of having a Minister for Development and a  Secretary of State on European Affairs, a Secretary of State is appointed combining European Affairs and International Cooperation. This clearly shows the importance of development cooperation has decreased considerably with this new government and the Vice-Minister will have very little time to spend on development cooperation. Because of the economic crisis, the lesser importance for development cooperation and the budgetary cuts deemend necessary, the new coalition government decided to cut the ODA budget from 0.8 to 0.7%. This had severe consequences for the NGO sector in the Netherlands and the number of focus countries was reduced from 35 to 15. Collaboration with the private sector is strongly supported.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is one of the four thematic priorities of Dutch development cooperation. The Secretary of State for European Affairs and International Cooperation promised an intensification of funding for this priority issue. However, when the budget was recently announced on September 20th 2011 this intensification, although described as such, was in reality a cut in the budget for SRHR. Numerous parliamentary question have been put forward to ask for clarification and more transparency. During the budgetary discussions in Parliament of November 2011, this cut was restored and a motion to increase with an additional € 8 million was accepted!

Key Documents