DutchNews.nl - Dutch should focus aid on 10 countries: report

The Netherlands should overhaul the way it structures its development aid programme and focus specialist attention on 10 countries, according to a new report by the government's scientific council for government policy WWR.

In order to do this, the government could set up its own umbrella organisation of experts, as the US and Britain have done the WWR said. Aid should be focused on actual development, based on a country's specific situation.

The report, entitled Less Pretention, more Ambition, has been two years in the making.

The researchers say Dutch aid is currently too focused on countering poverty by improving living situations. But this does not automatically lead to a structural improvement. And, more attention should be paid to the downside of aid, such as the development of a dependency culture, the distortion of existing social structures and support for bad government.

In addition, the WWR says, the financing of development aid needs an overhaul. The Netherlands currently spends some 0.7% of GDP on aid, in line with UN recommendations but that figure can be relaxed, the council said.

Much of that money is distributed directly through charities. But by setting up an umbrella group, dubbed NLAID in the report, the government can better control where aid is going and how it is spent. Dutch diplomatic missions would no longer be directly involved in aid spending, the report said.

Aid minister Bert Koender said in an initial reaction that he is not yet convinced of the need for a government aid umbrella group because it could lead to more bureaucracy.

But he told news agency ANP the report is a 'constructive contribution to the debate about development aid'.

But he said he does not agree with the proposal that the Netherlands focus on just 10 countries. The country has already reduced its focus from 100 to 40 countries and Koenders is planning further reductions. But the 10-country limit is 'extremely arbitrary', he said.

Dutch development cooperation has always combined feelings of moral superiority with those of guilt. It has always been a top-down operation, with gestures toward 'partners' who were actually 'recipients'. 'Less Pretention, More Ambition' gives a moral gloss to this businessmen's report. One can only imagine the outrage of the 'partners' at the sticky end. The alternative to bad development cooperation has always been international solidarity - a relationship between people or communities, autonomous of states and business, paternalism, raison d'etat and businessthink. (And the meaning of such solidarity can be found in the work of Henk Vos, 'Solidariteit', published some 25 or more years ago).

By peter waterman | January 18, 2010 3:55 PM

And, more attention should be paid to the downside of aid, such as the development of a dependency culture, the distortion of existing social structures and support for bad government.

Is this report describing NL or countries that NL sends aid to? I can't tell the difference, based on the statement above.

By Tim | January 18, 2010 10:36 PM

This article about foreign aid brings to mind about the long time dire need for night time lifesaving emergency helicopter medivac for patients from the dutch islands of Saba and St.Eustatius.Plane are restricted to land on Saba after 6:00PM. This is an ongoing concern and problem for the islands population in need of life saving medical attention that can only be obtained on the neighboring island of St.Maarten due to long time lack of appropriate medical facilities on the two islands,namely Saba and St.Eustatius!

By Eric M.Johnson,Sr. | January 19, 2010 4:15 AM