Development co-operation is one of the most prominent pillars of Dutch foreign policy. Dutch development assistance is headed by the Minister for Development Co-operation, but unlike most other donors, the Netherlands does not have a separate ministry or agency in charge of development co-operation. The Foreign Ministry’s Directorate-General for International Co-operation (DGIS) is responsible for the formulation, co-ordination, implementation and funding of Dutch development assistance, while regional and policy theme departments are in charge of geographical and thematic programmes. More responsibilities have been delegated to Dutch embassies in recent years, which play an important part in implementing Dutch development projects.

In 2003, a policy memorandum entitled ‘Mutual interests, mutual responsibilities: Dutch development co-operation en route to 2015’ defines sustainable poverty reduction as the overarching objective of Dutch development co-operation and the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) as the means to achieve this objective. As part of its efforts, the Dutch government has committed itself to a more coherent foreign and development policy and to improve the effectiveness and quality of its aid.

A key concept of Dutch aid is partnership. The Netherlands aims to better co-ordinate its activities with partner countries, other donors and multilateral agencies and to foster the involvement of private businesses, civil society organisations and individual citizens in development co-operation. The Dutch government has also placed increasing emphasis on demonstrating results of its aid and measuring the impact of its interventions towards specified development targets.

To enhance the impact of its contribution towards the MDGs and to make Dutch aid more visible, the Netherlands has decided to focus on four priority areas:

• education;
• HIV/AIDS;
• reproductive health and rights; and
• the environment and water.

Respect for human rights, gender equality, and good governance are important cross-cutting issues of Dutch foreign and development policy. According to the government strategy, poverty reduction and the promotion of human rights have to go hand in hand, and the Netherlands aims to hold national governments accountable to fulfil internationally recognised human rights standards. With regards to gender issues, the Netherlands promotes the position of women in its bilateral and multilateral co-operation and through support for relevant non-government organisations (NGOs.) The Dutch government has also played an important role in the negotiations on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Netherlands was one of the first countries to sign it.

Dutch Official Development Aid (ODA) was approximately US$ 5.1 billion in 2005, up 20% compared to 2004. This figure represents 0.82% of Dutch gross national income (GNI), which exceeds the United Nations (UN) target of 0.7% and is well above the OECD average of 0.47%. The bilateral share of Dutch ODA was 64% in 2004, of which 36% went to Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

Dutch bilateral development co-operation has been concentrated on a limited number of partner countries since 1998. The policy memorandum of 2003 has reduced the number of developing countries that are eligible for bilateral aid from 49 to 36. Criteria for the selection of partner countries include national development strategies, the level of commitment to human rights and good governance, the priorities of other donors, and the perceived added value of Dutch assistance. The framework for Dutch bilateral co-operation is defined by national development agendas, in particular Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs).

Partner countries of Dutch development co-operation in 2006:

• Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
• Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Yemen
• Latin America: Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Suriname
• Europe: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova

Dutch embassies play an integral role in organising and implementing Dutch bilateral aid, as they support the formulation of thematic priorities and multi-annual country strategies in co-operation with the local government. Embassies also mobilise and support local capacities (e.g. NGOs) and are primarily responsible for selecting and appraising activities for funding by the Dutch government. If a project is approved by the Foreign Ministry, the embassies are in charge of monitoring the implementation of the interventions. Most embassies have staff specifically dedicated to the priority areas supported by Dutch development co-operation, such as health and gender sector specialists.

With regards to bilateral approaches and instruments, the Dutch government is offering budget support to selected partner governments and is one of the first donors to support sector-wide approaches (SWAps). An example is the Dutch health sector support in Ghana, which is considered one of the oldest and most successful SWAps in Africa. Among the most important channels for Dutch bilateral aid are civil society organisations, which are supported through several funding mechanisms (see ‘Co-operation with NGOs’). These features of Dutch bilateral aid, in addition to the promotion of host country ownership and the delegation of authority to the field, have been recognised internationally and have served as a role model for other donors.

Top recipients of Dutch ODA in 2003/4 were DR Congo (debt relief), Ghana, Iraq (debt relief), Tanzania and India, which is no longer a partner country. Geographically, the bulk of Dutch assistance is concentrated on sub-Saharan Africa. The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) ‘education, health and population’ sector receives the largest share of Dutch ODA.

The Dutch government channels approximately a third of its development aid through multilateral organisations. As a member of influential donor groups such as the Nordic Plus countries (together with Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and the UK) and the Utstein group (together with Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the UK), the Netherlands is also regarded as an important voice contributing to the international development agenda.

Within the European Union (EU), the Netherlands has been actively involved in enhancing the coherence of the EU’s foreign and development policy and improving the effectiveness of European aid. The Dutch government is also a vocal supporter of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) at European level and has urged fellow European nations to step up their support on this issue. The Netherlands also stresses the importance of donor harmonisation and alignment and has supported the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

The importance the Dutch government attaches to the United Nations (UN) is highlighted by the fact that The Netherlands is the second largest donor to the UN agencies (behind Japan), spending US$ 446 million in 2004. Other multilateral recipients of Dutch ODA are the World Bank group (US$ 545 million), the European Commission (US$ 383 million), and the regional development banks (US$ 73 million). The Dutch government has developed an appraisal framework to measure the impact of its multilateral aid and is increasingly allocating its resources based on the performance of recipient agencies.

The Netherlands is widely regarded by NGOs and other donors as an international leader in support of SRHR issues. The Dutch government views improvements in reproductive health and rights as crucial for achieving real progress on the MDGs and the fight against HIV/AIDS. Therefore, the implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action is one of the key priorities of Dutch bilateral and multilateral co-operation, and the government has urged other donors to follow the Netherlands in fulfilling their political and financial commitments.

Dutch development co-operation has embraced a broad approach to SRHR, combining support for health care, sex education, contraceptives (including female condoms and microbicides) with strategies to foster gender equality and promote women’s right to freely determine the number and timing of their children. This rights-based approach is reflected in the objectives of the Dutch government in the field of SRHR:

• giving people the choice to decide freely on the number of their children;
• reducing maternal deaths during pregnancy and childbirth;
• reducing new HIV infections, especially among adolescents;
• expanding access to prevention, care and treatment for HIV/AIDS; and
• improving the reproductive rights of women and children in particular.

Dutch policies on HIV/AIDS are closely linked to the country’s SRHR strategy. The government stresses access to information and contraception as the key to preventing new HIV infections. The Netherlands is supporting the development of new prevention methods such as microbicides and vaccines and aims to increase the availability of safe contraceptives such as condoms. As in the field of SRHR, Dutch development co-operation especially focuses on vulnerable groups such as women, girls, orphans, and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Bilaterally, the Dutch government supports national governments to develop integrated SRHR and HIV/AIDS strategies and to strengthen existing health systems. Most support for SRHR and HIV/AIDS projects is channelled through multilateral organisations as well as Dutch, international and local NGOs. For example, the Netherlands supports public sex education campaigns and the distribution of condoms for young people, training sessions for medical staff and midwives, safe abortions, and treatment to women suffering from female genital mutilation (FGM).

The Netherlands is by far the largest donor country of funds for SRHR and HIV/AIDS. According to the Resource Flows Project, the Dutch government spent around US$ 275 million on SRHR and AIDS activities in 2003. The Netherlands is also the largest contributor to the UNFPA budget, donating around US$ 72 million in 2004.

In recent years, the Netherlands has further increased its aid levels for SRHR and HIV/AIDS. For example, spending on the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria alone has increased by 100% since 2002 and is expected to reach € 270 million in 2007. During its Presidency of the EU in 2004, the Netherlands and its EU partners set aside US$ 80 million to reduce acute shortages of contraceptives, condoms, obstetric packs and drugs for treating sexually transmitted diseases in developing countries.

Strong co-operation with civil society actors is one of the most prominent features of Dutch development co-operation, with around 15% of Dutch ODA currently channelled through NGOs. Conditions governing the provision of grants from the Dutch government have changed in recent years.

Up to 2006, the so-called Dutch ‘co-financing organisations’ received almost € 500 million annually under co-financing and theme-based co-financing programmes for implementing development projects in Dutch partner countries in close co-operation with local partners. The bulk of this amount was channelled through the following six Dutch NGOs: ICCO, Hivos, Cordaid, Oxfam Novib, Plan Netherlands, and Terre des Hommes Netherlands.

For the 2007–2010 grant period, the Dutch government has decided to combine the two separate grant programmes into a single co-financing system (MFS) guided by a coherent policy framework. This new system is partly inspired by new international developments and a policy debate between the Dutch government and civil society in 2004. The new MFS is designed to support strategic, multi-annual development programmes of both broad-based and theme-based Dutch NGOs and ensure complementarity and coherence with overall Dutch development objectives. Local partner organisations play an important role in capacity building and implementing the activities on the ground.

As international NGOs are not eligible to apply for the MFS, the Dutch government has recently launched the scheme ‘Strategic Alliances with International NGOs’ (SALIN) to supplement its partnership with Dutch NGOs in several thematic areas, including SRHR and HIV/AIDS.

Moreover, the Dutch government supports local civil society organisations in developing countries through its local embassies. NGOs from the South are advised to contact the Dutch embassy in their country to explore funding opportunities. Most embassies have a so-called ‘Civil Society and Small Grants Programme Officer’ who is responsible for dealing with local civil society.

In addition to the funding schemes mentioned above, several large Dutch NGOs, such as Hivos and ICCO, offer funding opportunities for smaller civil society actors. Please contact:

ICCO
PO Box 8190
NL-3505 RD Utrecht
The Netherlands
Phone: + 31 (30) 69 27 811
Fax: + 31 (30) 69 25 614
Email: info@icco.nl
Website: www.icco.nl

Hivos
Postbus 85565
NL-2508 CG The Hague
The Netherlands
Phone: + 31 (70) 37 65 500
Fax: + 31 (70) 36 24 600
Email: info@hivos.nl
Website: www.hivos.nl

pdf download

Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “Mutual interests, mutual responsibilities: Dutch development co-operation en route to 2015”

The Reality of Aid: Dutch ODA: Trends and Debates (The Reality of Aid reports 2006)

OECD Development Assistance Committee: DAC Peer Review The Netherlands 2001

OECD Development Assistance Committee: Donor Aid Chart Netherlands

UNFPA: Donor payments and pledges for 2004.

UNFPA/UNAIDS/NIDI: Projections of Funds for Population and AIDS Activities, 2004-2006

Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

OECD Development Assistance Committee