Development aid group Cordaid is reducing its workforce from 240 to 140 over the coming years because of expected government cutbacks, the NRC reports on Wednesday.

The aid group currently gets €65m a year from the state, but expects this to be reduced to €25m from 2015. Cordaid’s total budget this year is €140m.
‘We are listening to what is happening in The Hague,’ director Rene Grotenhuis told the paper. ‘The VVD and PVV want to slash spending on development aid. At the same time, we see the world is changing. People in Africa, where many live below the poverty line, need a different form of help and that is the direction we plan to take.’
The organisation now plans to focus on ‘social entrepreneurship’ which it hopes will lessen the reliance on government money.