5. Danish development assistance -focus on Africa

Denmark’s development assistance will continue to constitute at least 0.8% of GNP, which secures Denmark’s position as one of the world’s largest donors. The sustained development assistance has secured Denmark a good platform internationally; a platform that Denmark will continue to use to push other industrialised countries to increase their level of development assistance.

Fighting poverty and its many faces – such as inhuman living conditions, the spread of infectious diseases and conflicts – is the key challenge facing Danish development policy. In the fight against poverty, it is Danish policy to carry out targeted efforts in areas where the need for and effect of development assistance is greatest. If the poorest developing countries are to break out of poverty, it is crucial that they obtain the benefits of globalisation. The poor countries must take strong responsibility for ensuring good governance and for pursuing a sensible economic policy.

Water project in Benin supported by Danida (Danish International Development Assistance). The project supplies fresh water to the village of Zogbodomey. Since their installation, the taps have become gathering points for the villagers.
Photo: Jørgen Schytte, Danida.

While 400 million people around the world during the last few decades have been lifted out of absolute poverty, the number of poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa has doubled.

Danish development assistance 2006 (million USD)
Total ODA	2,236.13
- of which bilateral	1,463.91
- of which multilateral3	772.22

At the start of the 1980s, approximately 160 million people lived on less than one US dollar a day here. At the start of the 21st century, the figure had risen to more than 320 million. Many of these are young women and men with little access to education and employment.

In September 2000, the UN Millennium Summit defined a limited number of goals to be reached by the year 2015, with the overall objective of halving the proportion of the world’s population living in absolute poverty. By now, there is consensus that Africa is lagging far behind other parts of the world with regard to reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, it must be noted that while Sub-Saharan Africa may not reach all the MDGs, recent developments in Africa reveal a more optimistic picture. Since the mid-1990s, many low-income African countries have lifted significant parts of their populations above the poverty line. While in some countries growth and poverty reduction have recently shown a moderate decline, many countries are still on course to meet the MDG target of halving poverty by 2015.

The Danish Government has placed Africa at the heart of its development policy priorities. This is where the need for assistance is greatest. The Danish development assistance to Africa will therefore be increased in the coming years. This will be accomplished, for example, through the establishment of programme cooperation with Mali and through a substantial increase in Denmark’s contribution to international debt relief agreements as well as long-term programme support. In the assistance to Africa, the Government will attach importance to maintaining and supporting the African countries’ responsibility for and ownership of their own development.

The Government regards a long-term effort as crucial to combating poverty and maximising the impact of development assistance. The point of departure for the Danish effort will be the developing countries’ own poverty reduction strategies, which aim to ensure strong national ownership. The geographic focus is on the 16 bilateral programme countries, ten of which are African.

3. Including DKK 150.82 million (approx. USD 28 million) to UN peacekeeping operations.