Continuation and consolidation of the priorities of the development policy

The government will continue and consolidate its current development policy line.

The government will strengthen the assistance to Africa further. The increase in Danish development assistance will in particular be to the benefit of Africa, and it is the aim that two thirds of Denmark’s bilateral assistance should be given to the continent. Focus is on growth and economic development, particularly for the youth. Ensuring better living conditions for young people in Africa is imperative in order to, among other things, make better use of the potential of Africa, to fight illegal immigration to Europe and to prevent fundamentalism. Ensuring women’s rights and opportunities are also key issues in this respect. The Africa Commission, which the government established in April 2008, must tackle such issues and will, in the summer of 2009, put forward recommendations for a more efficient Danish and international development cooperation. An un-allocated reserve of DKK 200 million is set aside in 2009 to ensure an immediate follow-up on the recommendations of The Africa commission. The long-term follow-up will take place in the following years.

The cooperation with Asia and Latin America is maintained, but it will be adjusted continuously in the light of current developments. With the new Afghanistan-strategy 2008-2012, the government has prepared the ground for a doubling of the development assistance from DKK 200 million DKK to 400 million from 2009 onwards. In addition to this, support is given through Danish NGO’s and extra-ordinary humanitarian contributions. Afghanistan is thus markedly the largest country of cooperation outside Africa. The phasing out of Vietnam as a programme country is accelerated as a consequence of the country’s rapidly growing economy. Assistance to Nicaragua is downgraded, as the country’s reform process is still very slow.

To a great extent, the climate changes are a development challenge. Despite the fact that the poorest countries bear the least responsibility for man-made climate changes, these countries are hit the hardest. The government proposes, within a growing economic frame for development assistance, to increase the climate initiatives, and therefore the special budgetary allocation for climate change initiatives is doubled to DKK 200 million in 2009. As established in the Government Platform this allocation must not least assist the poorest countries in the fight to reduce and adapt to the man-made climate changes. In addition, efforts will continue to climate proof all direct development assistance and to concentrate the bilateral environmental development assistance to larger, focused programmes with a focus on climate and sustainable administration of natural resources, including forest, as a prerequisite to ensure resilience to climate changes.

The government is continuing Denmark’s high profile in regard to the un millennium Development Goal number 3 about gender equality and women’s rights and opportunities with a focus on economic growth. Women make up half of the workforce, and only when their rights and opportunities are ensured, societies as a whole can change for the better. It is a matter of values. But it is also a matter of sound and healthy economy. Therefore, development assistance to gender equality and women’s rights and opportunities will be doubled from DKK 200 million in 2008 to DKK 400 million in 2010. In addition, a special initiative for women’s rights and opportunities in Liberia worth DKK 100 million will be launched.

The government continues its strong engagement in democracy and human rights. Over the special budgetary allocation reserved for democracy and human rights, worth DKK 170 million per year, support is given to the construction of effective democratic state-institutions, to the improvement of the state of the law and the promotion of respect for human rights in developing countries that are not programme countries, including, for instance, Myanmar. All in all, this focus area is one of the largest in Danish development assistance.

The government strengthens Denmark’s contribution to promote peace and freedom and to fight poverty in fragile states. The enhanced assistance to Afghanistan is an example of this. At the same time, the strategic economic grant for stabilization and conflict prevention in developing countries is increased to DKK 250 million per year. Depending on the development, the economic grant will be used, for instance, to initiatives in Zimbabwe and Sudan. In order to strengthen and consolidate the reconstruction efforts in Iraq an extra sum of DKK 100 million is allocated in 2009-2010.

The fight against HIV/AIDS is high on the list of priorities and is strengthened again in 2009. It is expected to total approximately DKK 900 million in 2009.

Development assistance in regions of origin will be increased to DKK 335 million per year. Assistance to Afghan and Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons will be strengthened.

Denmark’s solid humanitarian engagement will have extra funds injected, including to address the effects of rising food prices. NGO development assistance will be increased as a consequence of the revised civil society strategy. In light of, among other things, the high Danish profile on key development issues, including the Africa commission and the campaign for gender equality and women’s rights, the government has decided to increase the budgetary allocation for public information activities.

The government will strengthen the strategic relevance of the multilateral development cooperation. To that end, an analysis of the multilateral cooperation has been prepared, and it points to a number of overall principles that can help to strengthen the Danish Multilateral engagement. There is particularly a need for a more systematic and less automatic approach to the Danish contributions, based on specific assessments of aid effectiveness and strategic relevance, and fewer but larger contributions to gain further Danish influence through greater division of labour in the multilateral system. As a result of the analysis, the government will make a gradual reprioritisation of the multilateral assistance over the next five years, totaling approximately DKK 2.5 billion.

Appendix 1 shows that there will be launched new sector programmes and other major programmes for approximately DKK 4 billion in 2009.

Appendix 2 provides a detailed overview of the government’s priorities of how to spend the development assistance in the next five years 2009-2013.