Zooming In

DENMARK’S GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY

Colophon

Title:
Zooming In

Subtitle:
DENMARK’S GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY

Publisher:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Responsible institution:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Author:
Eva Egesborg Hansen (Editor in Chief), Annemarie Zinck (Editor), Nigel Mander (English Editor), Thorstein Andreasen (Editorial consultant), Poul Kjar (Editorial consultant)

Other contributors:
Rosendahls - Schultz Grafisk (Digital edition and print), Gry Zierau, Umano (Design and layout), Rikke Tina Ulnits/Mission Øst (Cover Photo), DG Media (Advertising), Line Louise Bahner (Distribution)

Language:
Dansk

URL:
http://www.netpublikationer.dk/um/9521/index.htm

ISSN:
1601-9776

Version:
1.0

Version/edition:
27-10-2009

Publication standard nr.:
2.0

Data formats:
html,htm,jpg,gif,pdf,css,js

Publisher category:
statslig

Copyright:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Notes and other information:
Material contained in Zooming In does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged, except where otherwise stated. Citations may be made without prior permission, provided the source is acknowledged.

This edition closed for contributions on 30 September 2009.

Table Of Contents

Denmark’s global responsibility

Focus on combating poverty

Denmark at the front line in Afghanistan

NATO’s new face

Support for Vietnam’s climate battle

Helping Africa to gain from globalisation

• ’Absolutely the right approach’

Denmark’s global responsibility

The global financial and economic crisis has serious consequences for the world’s poor countries. It is therefore important that the governments of rich countries take co-responsibility, as does the Danish government. Denmark is among the leaders in international development cooperation – both regarding quantity and quality.

Danish development assistance represented 0.82 per cent of gross national product in 2008, and Denmark is one of only five countries in the world whose development assistance lies above the UN target of 0.7 per cent. But money doesn’t do the work by itself. The Danish government puts weight on the actual results achieved through Danish assistance.

This Zooming In supplement to Focus Denmark gives an insight into the role Denmark plays in different international development contexts, and the development programmes in which Denmark is engaged around the world.

Africa is at the centre of Danish development policy. In 2008 the government set
up the Africa Commission to examine the opportunities for strengthening international development assistance to Africa, with focus on the growing group of young Africans seeking employment. The commission, which comprised key players in international development cooperation – the majority from Africa – presented its recommendations in April 2009.

Fulfilling the United Nations Millennium Development Goals also has high priority for the Danish government. In 2008, Denmark initiated the Global Call to Action Torch Campaign to give impetus to fulfilling goal 3: ’Promote gender equality and empower women’. Headed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 100 government leaders, representatives for international organisations, private sector companies and individual citizens have committed themselves to make an extra effort for gender equality.

In Afghanistan, Denmark plays a very active role both militarily and in supporting rebuilding. Among the NATO countries, Denmark has the most soldiers in Afghanistan on a per capita basis, and Danish soldiers are at the front line in Helmand Province. Denmark’s objective is to help create a stable Afghanistan which can handle its own security and continue its democratic development..

In Vietnam, the Danish government supports climate projects, and in Bolivia and Bhutan, Danish assistance has accelerated the process towards democratic rule.

New challenges are constantly emerging. The challenges we are encountering today are more complex than before. Denmark’s efforts to combat poverty must be further developed. So during the coming year, the Danish government will formulate a new strategy for Danish development policy.

Read about Denmark’s development assistance involvement and much more on the following pages.

Ulla Tørnæs, Minister for Development Cooperation

Focus on combating poverty

With the financial crisis threatening to put the world’s poorest countries into reverse, global development assistance is more important than ever. Denmark has taken the lead as one of a handful of countries meeting the UN goal of providing 0.7 per cent of GNP in development assistance.

By Jeppe Villadsen

Out among the baobab trees, they notice it. Nowhere does the international financial crisis hit harder than among the world’s poorest. In Burkina Faso’s villages. Or in Nairobi’s slums. They didn’t have much to lose to start with, and last year’s food crisis as well as galloping food and petrol prices had already drained resources.

No development assistance can completely alleviate the impact of the financial crisis, but the solid support it provides will become more important than ever if the significant progress of recent years in some of the world’s poorest countries is not to be lost – especially in Africa’s Sub-Saharan countries which have seen continuously high economic growth over the last ten years.

In 2008, Danish development assistance increased by DKK 524 million, approx. EUR 70 million to reach DKK 14.47 billion approx. EUR 1.9 billion, or 0.82 per cent of GNP. That makes Denmark one of only five countries which exceed the UN target of 0.7 per cent.

In recent years, the focus of Danish assistance has increasingly been directed at Sub-Saharan Africa, and now Africa is at the centre of Denmark’s development policy. The Danish government has set the objective that 66% of its bilateral development assistance must be earmarked for Africa. In 2008, the proportion was 61 per cent.

The government has established an Africa Commission, which in May presented its proposals on how development assistance can help create more growth and jobs in Africa, not least for the continent’s enormous group of young people. Their recommendation is to put the primary focus on the business community, to provide the driving force for creating new jobs.

A strong private sector will assist in achieving the overriding goal of Danish assistance: combating poverty and helping the world’s penniless towards a decent existence. This concerns a lot more than economics: conflict and bad government are actually among the biggest barriers to development.

If the world is to fight off poverty, developments have to happen on a broad front that will give populations access to health, nutrition, political freedom, social rights, education and safety. So Denmark is working with a broad understanding of poverty that includes both the political and social aspects of combating poverty.

Equality pays
A high priority in Danish development assistance is gender equality and empowering women, for which there are powerful development policy arguments. Investments in women have a major positive impact on conditions for future generations. Women invest more than men in their children’s nutrition, education and health. And increased incomes and education for women result in lower population growth, greater poverty reduction and economic growth. Educated women simply have fewer children and are better at taking care of the children they do have.

All this is well-documented. For example, studies from Asia show that children of whose mothers have completed their primary education have a 25 per cent lower risk of permanent disability due to malnutrition. And a survey of farming families in Kenya documents that more education leads to higher agricultural yields. This effect was 22 per cent greater for women than for men.

In 2008, Denmark initiated the MDG3 (United Nations Millenium Development Goal 3) Global Call to Action campaign which, headed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, obliges 100 government leaders and representatives of international organisations, the private sector and civil society to make an extra effort for gender equality.

Denmark’s strategic priorities

• Combating poverty is the fundamental objective of Denmark’s development work, i.e. for all country programmes, strategies and other efforts
• Work on combating poverty is carried out via national development strategies or poverty strategies formulated by the countries’ governments
• Promotion of democracy and respect for human rights is an essential consideration in all Danish development assistance Consideration for the environment is incorporated into all Danish assistance programmes
• Focusing on women’s access to and control over resources. Promoting equal opportunities to achieve economic influence for women and men.
• Agricultural and business sector development with a view to creating economic growth and employment are important priorities in Denmark’s work with combating poverty
• Emergency aid relieves acute hunger and needs in crisis areas

Read more about Denmark’s development policies on: http://www.um.dk
(the official homepage for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark).

Collaboration is the way forward
The aim of Denmark’s development work is the UN Millennium Development Goals, which were adopted by the world’s heads
of state and government in 2000 for achievement by 2015. These goals include combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy and discrimination against women. Last year, a global mid-way review was conducted, which showed that special efforts are needed in a number of areas to reach the goals.

Africa in particular is falling behind. Here there is a need for not only cooperation between donor countries and recipient countries, but also coordination between donors. Denmark puts weight on harmonising its assistance with other donors, adjusting it to the recipient countries’ own development plans and ensuring that it can function in their own systems. Experience has shown that this is the most durable and efficient way to provide assistance.

Previously it was more the case that each donor supported specific projects, which were not always that well coordinated with local political structures or other donors. This type of assistance made it easy to follow the funds from payment to completion of for example the building of a school.

Since assistance today increasingly consists of contributions to coordinated shared programmes or to budget support that is channelled into the recipient countries’ public sector systems, one has to look more closely at what has jointly been achieved with other donors and cooperation countries. But ultimately, it is the results that count: Is poverty being reduced? Can more children read and write? Is health being improved?

United Nations Millennium Development Goals

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

Read more on http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals

Se billede i fuld størrelse

More than catastrophes
It is often the catastrophes and the acute need for help that steal the headlines. But the long-term objectives of ensuring peace, stability and democratic development are just as important. Experience shows that countries with political stability have the best economic development. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) concluded in a survey in 2005 that armed conflict is the most significant cause of hunger in the world.

Peace and stability are directly related to the opportunities countries have for development and for meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals. So working for democracy, human rights, peace and stability also play a notable and growing role in Danish development work.

In 2008, Denmark used DKK 1.4 billion, approx. EUR 188 million of the total assistance funds of DKK 14.5 billion, approx. EUR
1.95 billion on activities directly promoting good governance, democracy and human rights – a 50 per cent increase compared to 2004. The money was spent on preparations for and holding of elections, combating corruption, building up a free press and systems of justice as well as teaching in democracy.

The objective of development cooperation is ultimately to render assistance unnecessary. That is how it has transpired in a number of countries in Asia, and preferably how it should go in Africa. When a cooperating country has experienced prolonged positive development, the assistance will gradually be phased out.

After many years of preparation, Denmark phased out Egypt as a programme cooperation country last year, and in a few years the same will happen for Bhutan and Vietnam. The Danish government has no plans to scale down development assistance however, and Denmark will remain among the global leaders in the coming years.

Denmark at the front line in Afghanistan

While Danish soldiers are putting their lives at risk in Helmand Province, advisors and NGOs are helping the Afghan government to rebuild the rest of the country. »We are deeply grateful for the Danish effort,« says Afghanistan’s former Ambassador to the Nordic countries, Jawed Ludin

By Charlotte Aagaard

Danish soldiers discussing wheat prices with Afghan men at a checkpoint between Musa Qala and Gereskh.
Photo: Charlotte Aagaard

Denmark is at the front line, both in terms of confronting the Taleban and rebuilding Afghanistan. In the troubled Helmand Province in the south, more than 700 soldiers are fighting alongside British, American and Afghan security forces to ensure that the Taleban does not reimpose its Middle Age version of Islam on the Afghan population. At the same time Danish advisors are working hard to help the Afghan government and the population, especially in education, human rights and combating poverty.

The sound of hope
One of those who is benefiting from the Danish effort is 58 year old farmer Yar Mohammed, who lives with his wife and three children in the mud-built village of Joe Duktar, a hundred kilometres northwest of Kabul. Here in the foothills of the majestic Hindu Kush mountains he makes a living from growing wheat, maize and apricots on the family’s single hectare of land. Most of what they grow, they eat themselves. The rest they sell in order to be able to buy tea, sugar and other basic necessities.

There is no wealth here, but Yar Mohammed is full of hope.

Below his house on the steep hillside, you can hear the sound of shovels and pickaxes, and see fifty men bathed in sweat and slogging away at the stony ground. That is the sound of hope. Soon a three kilometre long irrigation channel carrying melt water from the mountains will be completed, and Yar Mohammed hopes that next year his fields will produce a much bigger yield.

»It is wonderful that I no longer need to fetch water for my fields. Next year I hope to grow so much wheat that I can sell it on the market.«

The irrigation channel for Joe Duktar and six other villages in the Ghorband Valley of Parwan Province is one of many agricultural projects run by a Danish NGO, the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACAAR). With support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the two-year project is now almost complete. At least 50 workers are staggering about in the midday heat, casting joints and putting the last cement pipes in place.

The irrigation channel has been built on steep mountain slopes and has required many man-hours, but the daily wage of AFN 250 (DKK 25 or USD 5) is good by Afghan rates of pay. When the farmers in Joe Duktar are not busy tending their fields they join in the work, and the rest of the time they pay half of the workers’ wages. That gives them ownership of the entire project and helps ensure that the irrigation channel remains a success in ten or twenty years, says Abdullah Behzad of DACAAR.

From one cow to six
Shawzia is another of the Afghans who benefits from the Danish efforts. She lives in the village of Khawaja Gian, about thirty kilometres north of Kabul, together with her husband Abdel Mohammed, their ten children and six cows.

The cows belong to Shawzia. She bought them with Danish-financed microloans of AFN 10,000 (DKK 1,000 or USD 200), which have changed both her life and that of the rest of the family. Shawzia started by buying one cow, but today she has six – enough to provide her family with milk, yoghurt and cheese, with a sufficient surplus of milk and cheese that she can sell every day to several shops in the village.

Shawzia and her family’s living room is cosy with pink curtains, oriental rugs, thick cushions, a TV and a roofed-over atrium laden with bunches of grapes, evidence that the family is doing well.

»I am very satisfied with my life,« she says with a big smile.

»I earn money every day. It means that I can pay back my loan and send my children to school, both boys and girls. They no longer need to work during school hours,« she says.

And also between Shawzia and her husband the cows have led to big changes.

»Do I have more say in things? Yes, certainly! Today my husband and I take the decisions together. We didn’t do that before, but now it is me who has the money,« she says with a cheerful smile.

Security first
In Helmand Province, where most of the Danish soldiers are stationed, the security situation is not yet stable enough for large rebuilding projects. But Denmark has nevertheless taken part in building everything from water towers, bridges and schools to a hospital and a teacher training college. The province authorities have also received further training and in the Department of Education, Danish educational advisors are collaborating closely with Afghans to prepare educational plans for the province.

Together with the British, the Danes have a hydroelectric plant on the drawing board, but security is not yet sufficiently good to implement the project. The hope is that the major military offensive, which Danish, British, American and Afghan forces are carrying out during the summer and autumn 2009, will change this.

In those areas where there is still considerable insecurity, a fair number of smaller projects are also being carried out which the military help to initiate, including water pumps, small bridges, repairing destroyed roads, houses, mosques and small dams, so that the farmers’ fields are not flooded in spring. The aim of the rebuilding is to convince the local population that there is an alternative to the Taleban.

Maulavi Mildin is one of those who support the presence of the Danish forces in Helmand. He is one of the leading imams in Gereskh, the main city in the central part of Helmand, for which the Danish forces are responsible.

»I use my Friday sermons to tell people that the foreign forces are here to help and rebuild, not to occupy our country. There are many who think the latter, but it is not so. You don’t want to take our country from us. You are here to help us build schools, health clinics, roads and electricity supplies,« says the 66 year old imam.

Denmark in Afghanistan

Denmark is in Afghanistan on a UN mandate.

The overall objective of the Danish effort in Afghanistan is to contribute to national, regional and global security by preventing the country again becoming a safe haven for terrorists.

At the same time, the Danish effort should encourage the growth of a stable and more developed Afghanistan, which can manage its own security, continue democratic development and advance respect for human rights. Afghanistan is thus supported by both economic assistance for rebuilding, and military effort.

The rebuilding is supported with a DKK 450 million, approx. EUR 60.5 million annual budget, primarily used for education, wages for school teachers, elections, human rights and general combating of poverty.

The aim of Denmark’s military presence in Afghanistan is to assist the Afghan government in spreading and exerting control over the country, so that conditions are created for stabilisation and rebuilding.

That task is carried out in close collaboration with the Afghan security forces, which Denmark is also helping to build.

There is broad support in the Danish parliament for a comprehensive Danish effort in Afghanistan up to 2012. As the Afghan security forces become able to maintain security themselves, Danish assistance will gradually be adjusted in a more civilian direction.

Source: http://www.um.dk

Afghan praise
The Danish effort is garnering considerable praise from the Afghan government, not least because Denmark is collaborating closely on rebuilding and at the same time risking the lives of its soldiers out on the front line. The Danish effort in Afghanistan has so far resulted in 26 soldiers losing their lives, most of whom have been killed in Helmand Province. If the loss is measured in relation to Denmark’s population, it makes Denmark the coalition country which has suffered the greatest casualties.

»The Danish effort is exemplary,« opines Jawed Ludin, former Ambassador to the Nordic countries and one of President Hamid Karzai’s closest advisors. »It is obvious that the USA and Great Britain will send their soldiers to the front, but when a small country like Denmark takes on one of the most dangerous tasks, it is something very special, and the Danes should know that we are deeply grateful for that.«

Jawed Ludin laments that so many Danish soldiers have lost their lives.

»It is deeply tragic, but the Danes are not on their own. Denmark is taking part in a historic mission and is helping Afghanistan to get back on its feet after decades of suffering because of the international conflicts that have been fought in our country,« he says with reference to the Cold War, where CIA-supported Mujahedin fought Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan.

The ambassador stresses that it is very positive that Denmark is so committed because a small country like Denmark does not have its own agenda in Afghanistan. »Denmark just wants to help us, and this can show Afghans that it is not an American occupation of our country,« says Jawed Ludin.

Soldiers per capita

Denmark contributes the second largest amount to the civilian rebuilding of Afghanistan, measured on a per capita basis. The top 10 contributors are:

1. Norway
2. Denmark
3. The Netherlands
4. Sweden
5. Canada
6. Great Britain
7. USA
8. Finland
9. Japan
10. Germany

Source: http://www.um.dk

Popular support
Despite the great losses, there is still domestic support for Denmark’s effort in Afghanistan. In the Danish parliament, only the left wing party Enhedslisten opposes Denmark’s military involvement.

A broad political majority agrees that Denmark should stay in Afghanistan for as long as there is a need. In the long term, the plan is for Danish involvement to gradually become more civilian and for the military to play a far less obtrusive role than today.

The Danish Minister for Defence, Søren Gade, has repeatedly said that Denmark is in Afghanistan to create security for the Afghan people and thus also security for Europe and the rest of the world. But that is not a project that will quickly deliver success, comments the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Stig Møller. It will take some time before Afghanistan is able to handle its own affairs.

»Afghanistan has lived through decades of conflict and the country is thus still a delicate democracy. Developments are positive in many areas, but the situation is not yet stable, and the Afghan state has difficulty in providing sufficient security, good governance and basic services,« he says.

The Danish people also have great understanding of the effort in Afghanistan. An opinion poll in August conducted by Gallup shows that 62 per cent of Danes think the Danish soldiers should stay in Afghanistan until the task has been completed. And that is exactly what the Danish government intends to do.

»It will take time to reach the point when Afghanistan can stand on its own two feet, but the Danish government is prepared to maintain its major commitment. How long it will take depends on specific developments in Afghanistan«, says Per Stig Møller, who declines for the same reason to set a date.

Assistance per capita

Denmark has the second highest number of soldiers in Afghanistan, measured on a per capita basis. The top 10 contributors are:

1. Great Britain
2. Denmark
3. Estonia
4. The Netherlands
5. Norway
6. USA
7. Canada
8. Macedonia
9. Latvia
10. Croatia

Source: http://www.um.dk

NATO’s new face

NATO’s new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is staking everything on achieving success in the operations in Afghanistan. And Denmark’s former prime minister has a reputation for realising his visions

PORTRAIT
By Charlotte Aagaard

Photo: Scanpix

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, 56, is both an idealist and a pragmatist. His visions for NATO are relatively simple; the war in Afghanistan must be won, the relationship with Russia improved, and NATO must remain the world’s strongest military alliance. Three objectives which without doubt he will do his utmost to fulfil.

After seven years as prime minister and six months as EU chairman, Anders Fogh Rasmussen is considered a highly experienced politician, who manages with great skill to reach the objectives he sets himself. Even political opponents respect him for his capability, initiative and determination.

Afghanistan
It is no coincidence that Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s first state visit as secretary general of NATO was to Afghanistan.

»I wanted to send a signal to the Afghan people that we support them in their efforts to become a free and prosperous nation. Afghanistan’s children should grow up in a peaceful country. That is my highest priority,« he explains in his official blog.

Among the first messages from Anders Fogh Rasmussen was thus the announcement that NATO’s engagement in Kosovo will be completed and all powers henceforth concentrated in Afghanistan, where 64,500 soldiers are now under direct NATO command.

Afghanistan is a project which must succeed, is the message from the new secretary general. For the sake of international security, for the sake of NATO’s future as a reliable military alliance and for the sake of the Afghan population.

»A peaceful Afghanistan must be built by the Afghans themselves, but I would like to point out that NATO will stay as long as it takes to carry out the task,« he says, and hopes that the Afghans can take over »the main responsibility for most of the country« during his time as secretary general.

A door to the east
The other important signal from NATO’s new secretary general is that he wants to improve the relationship with Russia, which has been very strained since the Russia-Georgia War in 2008.

One of Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s first initiatives as secretary general was thus a commitment to increase the collaboration with Russia regarding combating terror, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and piracy.

At the same time however, Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that NATO intends to continue in its endeavours to expand the alliance with Georgia and Ukraine, which deeply worries Russia.

»NATO’s open door policy will continue, but to become a member one has to be ready to contribute to Europe’s and North America’s security and be ready to defend peace, democracy, individual freedom and the constitutional state,« says the liberal politician, adding that possible NATO expansions are not targeted against Russia or any other state.

»NATO wants to live in peace with all countries, but none outside NATO can veto another country’s membership.«

Anders Fogh Rasmussen sees it as his overall objective to ensure that in ten years, NATO is still the world’s strongest military alliance, an alliance that can defend its members, both against terrorism and the threat from weapons of mass destruction.

If that is to become a reality, success in Afghanistan is a must. And making it happen will probably give the new NATO secretary general more than a few headaches over the next four years.

Support for Vietnam’s climate battle

With a DKK 200 million grant (EUR 26.86 million) Denmark has become the first country to support Vietnam in its fight against climate change.

By Anna Mogensen

Photo: Klaus Holsting, Danida

Without fanfare, Denmark has become Vietnam’s strongest ally in the fight against climate change. In late 2008 the Danish Ambassador to Vietnam, Peter Lysholt Hansen, and Vietnam’s Minister for Natural Resources and the Environment, Pham Khoi Nguyen, signed a comprehensive agreement that provides DKK 200 million in funding to help Vietnam prevent and adapt to climate change. The financial support covers the period 2009-2013, and makes Denmark the first donor to Vietnam’s national climate programme, which is designed to tackle the alarming shifts in climate.

Vietnam is among the five countries most severely affected by climate change, according to data from the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is forecast that sea levels along Vietnam’s coast will rise 33 centimetres by 2050, and as high as 1 metre by 2100. A sea level rise on this scale will make 20 million people homeless, and 80 per cent of the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam will disappear in 40 years.

These predictions of catastrophe have put climate high on Vietnam’s political agenda. To help limit the consequences of climate change, the Vietnamese government produced a road map for climate change adaptation in late 2008, The National Target Program.

Denmark’s support of climate adaptation in Vietnam is targeted partly at national level, and partly at specific activities in the coastal provinces of Ben Tre and Quang Nam, which are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

“Vietnam’s CO2 emissions are still limited, so the pressing challenge right now is adaptation to climate change. The first step is to identify the consequences of climate change in order to map out the initiatives needed in the action plan. Not least, research and pilot projects need to be launched because this is a whole new field where, if you want my honest opinion, nobody knows how to manage climate change in the most effective way,” says ambassador Peter Lysholt Hansen, who adds:

“On the one hand you need to act quickly. On the other hand you need to advance cautiously, because nobody wants to start a project which turns out to be irrelevant and a waste of time.”

Vietnam’s transition from planned economy to market economy, assisted by the strong work ethic of the Vietnamese people, has led to a surge in economic growth since the mid 1990s. And as the growth curve has climbed, so the number of poor has declined very significantly.

But Vietnam risks losing momentum in its war on poverty if consideration for the poorest is not woven into the plans for how the Vietnamese people can best adapt to climate change.

“The poor are the most vulnerable to climate change. It is their homes which are lost, their fields which are flooded. This double challenge – climate adaptation and fighting poverty – is in this respect not a top-down process, but has been placed in the provinces,” says Trang Thuy Nguyen, who coordinates climate-related activities at the Danish Embassy in Hanoi. She explains:

“For example, it is a key feature of the Danish programme to support women in the provinces, since it is often the women who are most vulnerable. So we recommend building up the efforts around the people’s own experience and place climate-related initiatives out with local people and decision makers in the provinces.”

Helping Africa to gain from globalisation

The Africa Commission set up by the Danish government will give a boost to African business life. The drivers are the young, better borrowing facilities and strengthened competitiveness

By Jeppe Villadsen

How can development aid help to stimulate stronger growth and create more jobs in Africa? To answer that question, the Danish government last year set up a commission consisting of 18 African and Danish heads of government, business leaders and development assistance experts.

Over the last 10 years Africa has enjoyed a growth boom, which has yielded double-digit growth rates in several countries. But it has been driven primarily by increases in raw material prices and has not resulted in many additional jobs. Meanwhile the population of the African continent is increasing at dizzying speed. Africa needs to create 10 to 15 million new jobs every year just to keep pace with the population growth, but is achieving only 8.5 million jobs per year.

In May 2009, after 14 months’ work, the commission proposed a set of five initiatives, each one designed to help stimulate growth and increase employment in Africa, especially among the young.

And the driving force for job creation is the business community.

”The private sector is the engine of growth. No country has ever achieved development through investments in the public sector alone,” said UN Deputy Secretary General and Africa Commission member Asha-Rose Migiro, when the commission presented its recommendations.

Or as the chairman of the commission, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, remarked at the same occasion:

”The Commission has been set up to enable Africa to benefit from globalisation.”

He emphasised that growth in the private sector not only creates opportunities for African youth, it also provides the most effective means of combating poverty.

Almost two thirds of the African population today is under 25, a proportion that is expected to increase rapidly in the coming years. So future job prospects for this group could determine whether the young become a source of growth or social unrest.

Focus on the young
In addition to growth and Africa’s youth, the commission sees other focus areas in the role of women, education and climate change.

The commission’s recommendations are: to give small and medium sized companies easier access to loans; to strengthen the competitiveness of African countries through inclusion in a competitiveness index; to help young African entrepreneurs in getting started; to ease access to sustainable energy, especially in rural areas; and to give more young people post-primary education.

President of the African Development Bank and Africa Commission member Donald Kaberuka is extremely satisfied with the work of the commission.

”I believe that we have managed to convince the sceptics. We are not the first to call for development of the private sector, but we are the first to focus on the young in this endeavour, which is necessary when one considers how the African population is developing,” says Donald Kaberuka.

He continues:
”The Africa Commission is not about ’what we can do for Africa’. It is a joint Danish-African initiative on what we can do together – Denmark, African governments, the private sector in Africa, the European private sector etc. This will make it easier to implement the recommendations.”

Focus on the private sector
Mozambique’s president Luísa Dias Diogo also feels sure that the plans will be converted into real action.

”This is not just another report that will sit on a shelf gathering dust. I believe that it will be implemented, because it is very pragmatic. The theoretical basis is there of course, but we have given most emphasis to the solutions – the world is already crawling with analyses.”

Critics of the commission’s work are uneasy about the strong focus on the development of the private sector, which it is feared will happen at the expense of development aid’s traditional targets of poverty and improved cultivation of the land, where the majority of Africans earn their living. But Luísa Dias Diogo thinks that the criticism is built on a misunderstanding.

”I think this stems from the content of the report being insufficiently precise. The report states that the private sector is an engine for growth. But! The private sector doesn’t function in a vacuum,” she says, pointing to a number of examples from agricultural production where the public sector is involved through facilitating research, market analyses, seed supplies and the establishment of infrastructure for roads, water, energy and telecommunication.

”It is a misunderstanding to believe that our focus on the private sector means that the public sector is unimportant. Nothing will be taken from the resources we already use on education, agriculture etc. The public sector will still play the largest role in Africa, but alongside it there is an unoccupied space that needs to be filled,” insists Mozambique’s president.

Concerning the criticism of the commission’s initiatives that they neglect combating poverty, Denmark’s Minister for Development Ulla Tørnæs emphasises that it is not about economic growth at any price. Growth shall create jobs.

”We want to encourage economic growth that creates more and better jobs for both young men and women on equal terms. So the Africa Commission has for example focused on the value chains based on agriculture. Africa needs to export more goods of higher value, not unprocessed raw materials from agriculture, which is all too often the case today.”

”We must also remember that a sufficiently well-paid job is probably the most effective means of combating poverty. It enables the household budget to cover sending girls to school, to buy medicines, to buy a cooker that saves on fuel and so saves time for the women and girls. And that engenders self-esteem. Private sector development that creates employment is, to the best of my belief, the most sustainable way to stimulate development and tackle poverty,” says Ulla Tørnæs.

In May 2009, the Danish-led Africa Commission presented new strategies for improving international development cooperation in Africa. Members of the commission are here seen gathered for the first meeting in April 2008.
Photo: Scanpix.

’The money is coming’
The economic heavyweight of the five initiatives – a DKK 2.7 billion, (approx. EUR 363 million) African Guarantee Fund which will ease access to loans for smaller enterprises – will be established in partnership with the African Development Bank. The bank’s president, Donald Kaberuka, is not worried about the financing:

”A smaller proportion will be development aid, which is then combined with money from international financial institutions like ourselves, IFC (a division of the World Bank which makes loans to privately owned companies, Ed.) and others. We will also invite investors to put cash into the fund, which will be operated on market principles. So I am confident that we can raise the money. We have plenty of experience in financing and operating this type of fund.”

From the Danish side, DKK 200 million has been earmarked in 2009 in accordance with the commission’s recommendations. The support for Africa’s private sector will increase gradually up to 2014, when it will approach DKK 2 billion, (approx. EUR 269 million) – double what it is today.

Whether this money will be taken from other development aid areas was not clear, following the presentation of the recommendations. At the Africa Commission’s press conference Lars Løkke Rasmussen said:

”We are one of only five countries which assigns more than 0.8 per cent of GNP to development aid, and we intend to increase that percentage in the coming years. When I say that we will double our support of the private sector programmes, it is a clear signal on how the overall budget will be prioritised. But I cannot reveal today how big the total budget will be. It constitutes part of the forthcoming budget.”

’Absolutely the right approach’

Only Africa can solve the African continent’s problems – but the Africa Commission’s initiatives are a step in the right direction, according to a Kenyan entrepreneur. The Africa Commission’s recommendations are spot on. At least
if you ask a Kenyan entrepreneur, who knows the difficulties of running a business.

”It is absolutely the right approach, because we need better technical skills, and have to prioritise areas like energy, technology and education,” says Eva Muraya, the 41 year old founder of Color Creation, which has so far navigated the financial crisis without shedding any of its 100 employees.

”The private sector delivers sustainable solutions, not quick solutions. Development partners need to cooperate with
the private sector to create sustainable solutions, and not the kind of programmes we have seen in Africa for the last 50 years, where they are here for three years and when they leave, things fall apart,” says Eva Muraya. Her firm is involved in branding and consultancy for start-up companies.

”Engagement in combating poverty in Africa must be sincere, and development partners must support private sector initiatives that can help reach the 2015 goals. And there must be collaboration, and not what we have most often seen where the government, the development partners and the private sector all act independently.”

What are the biggest obstacles for people like yourself, who run companies in Kenya?

”Access to market information, access to loans and the opportunity to provide security for loans due to outdated, gender-discriminating inheritance rules. Another problem is state bureaucracy, which delays tax refunds and has caused major problems for newly established companies.”

Lack of jobs is one of the biggest problems Africa faces. How can jobs be created?

”I think that successful entrepreneurs will increasingly use their companies as
a means to try and improve conditions in local society. When company owners start asking themselves how they can help improve welfare in local society, I think that Africa will start finding its own solutions to the unemployment problem.”

”I think that the future looks bright for Kenyan entrepreneurs. We are seeing the emergence of a whole new group of business people who will begin to correct the existing imbalances.”

The same applies to corruption, which she sees as a major problem.

”The new generation wants to make things more global and transparent, and they understand that a simpler and more streamlined procedure will benefit everyone in the business community. We cannot cling to the past. Only Africa can solve Africa’s problems.”

Read more: http://www.africacommission.um.dk

The voice of Denmark is strong in Ghana

Denmark is among the leading providers of assistance to Ghana and is praised for its committed effort, which is crucial for keeping Ghana on the positive path the country has taken in recent years

By Lars Zbinden Hansen

Photo: Klaus Holsting, Danida.

The connection between Denmark and Ghana is not of recent date. It started more than 350 years ago when Danes settled on “the Gold Coast” and over time established five forts. From here they bought and transported slaves to the West Indies. The forts are still in existence, and serve to remind us of a murky chapter in the book of shared history.

But in the midst of this historical darkness, a royal envoy shines. Paul Erdmann Isert wrote in his letters from 1788 that he was ’sickened by the horror and misery’ he saw in the treatment of the slaves.

And after the Danes finally left the coast, Isert returned with royal Danish support to establish a colony that was to be based on collaboration, not slavery.

The idea was to grow sugar cane, coffee and cocoa for export. The locals were to receive wages for their work, and if Isert had succeeded with the project, a ’win-win-situation’ would have resulted for everybody. But he didn’t succeed. As with so many other white men on the Gold Coast, Isert died from tropical disease.

With his humanistic, practical and optimistic approach however, Isert managed to make such an impression that his name has stayed in Ghanaian history, and in the capital of Accra a street is named after him.

Mutual respect
There is thus a certain historical logic to the Danish embassy today being located precisely on Dr. Isert Road, and that the essence of the Danish assistance cooperation with Ghana is a humanistic and pragmatic approach, focused on collaboration and mutual respect.

In the yellow-painted single storey building which houses the embassy, Ambassador Stig Barlyng says that “it is important that we discuss principles together and respect each other. And we do that much more than previously when we just came and decided. It is essential to progress that a country gets used to managing its own policies and development. Denmark’s greatest task here is to help the Ghanaians to manage their systems”.

Although the Ghanaian administration lacks money and sufficiently trained staff in all departments, the Ghanaians have managed to develop their own strategy for poverty reduction. And this forms the basis for support from Denmark and other donors. There is a close collaboration between Ghana and the donors which is eased by the democracy taking root in Ghana. With the election in 1992, almost 30 years of political turbulence and unrest was replaced by democratic development which has stayed ever since.

“After four successive, free and fair democratic elections, the Ghanaians are very conscious of the importance of democracy, and at government level there is a clear wish to improve the population’s conditions”, says Ambassador Barlyng.

The key concept for Danish development policy is combating poverty, and good governance is considered essential in order for cooperation countries to pull themselves out of poverty. The concept has also been the focal point of the Danish-Ghanaian cooperation which began in 1989.

Growth but still problems
Ghana has seen steady economic growth since 1992 – in 2008 it was 7.2 per cent – and the country has already reached the 2015 target of halving extreme poverty, but there are still massive problems. More than a third of the population lives below the poverty line of 2 US dollars per day, hunger is rife especially in the northern regions, less than half of the population has access to clean water, child mortality is high, and the health and educational systems are in many ways run-down and dilapidated.

The inflation rate is around 14 per cent and the country’s currency, the Cedi, has lost almost a third of its value against the US dollar over the last year.

So the country is still dependent on development assistance, which accounts for around 40 per cent of the budget. Denmark is among the 8 largest donors in Ghana, and in 2008 allocated DKK 441 million (EUR 59 million) across a range of areas including healthcare, water and sanitation, business, good governance and human rights, budget support and transport. But the trend is to limit assistance to fewer areas.

This is a continuation of the Paris Declaration from March 2005, when more than 100 countries crystallised a pressing need for coordinating and making the assistance collaboration more efficient to avoid overlaps and duplication. The code words in Paris were ’harmonisation’ and ’alignment’, which didn’t just mean coordination between donors, but also that the assistance should be aligned with the recipient countries’ systems and plans.

Denmark is working actively in Ghana to establish division of effort between the 16 large assistance donors engaged in the country. Denmark’s aim is to concentrate Danish assistance on areas where it has long experience. For example, DKK 170 million (EUR 23 million) has been allocated over the next five years to a programme for good governance and human rights. In these areas, Denmark has been a significant player for years in Ghana.

Guest waiting at the Ghanaian Ministry of Finance in Accra.
Photo: Klaus Holsting, Danida.

Show me your programme
As in other developing countries, the World Bank is the largest donor in Ghana. Country Director Ishac Diwan, who is Lebanese, says, that Danish influence in the assistance work in Ghana is significant.

“The voice of Denmark is strong. The Danish try to push the whole donor community in their particular fields of interest, and they are good at it. They tend to be very direct and say to the Ghanaians: ’Show me your programme, show me your indicators, and we’ll work something out on that basis’. But they still do it with respect for the Ghanaians whom they treat as equal partners.”

But although the focus of most assistance players is directed towards the Paris Declaration’s principles of harmonisation, alignment, local ownership of assistance, managing for results and mutual accountability, there is still a long way to go before donors and recipient countries work from a common agenda.

There is still a strong tendency for donors to concentrate primarily on their country’s compliance with its own strategies, rules and regulations. The donors are different, have varying perceptions of how assistance should be provided, and often their internal procedures are so diverse, that they are not easy to synchronise.

The World Bank, for example, is not subject to the same direct political and public control as the Danish assistance, which is regularly and sometimes fiercely debated in Denmark. The World Bank obtains its funds in the capitals of the donor countries, but although there is tight internal control and automatic monitoring by the donor countries and the press, the culture and procedures are different in the World Bank than in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which implements the Danish assistance.

Perhaps it is this different starting point and the different approach that makes Director Diwan, with a twinkle in his eye, call the Danish staff in Ghana ’realistic dreamers of very high quality. They try to transform their good intentions and strategies into tangible results – but based in the real world and within the idea of partnership’. So the Danish voice is listened to in the donor cooperation, which Diwan describes as ’well-established and well planned’.

Donor strategies must be synchronised
The coordination between the donors’ heads of assistance takes place in monthly meetings. This is where the Ghanaian strategies and programmes are discussed, to ensure that the donors do not prepare parallel programmes, but adopt a common approach.

And it is during these meetings that Denmark, in Ambassador’s Barlyng’s words, tries ’to push the agenda’ by maintaining the focus on the intentions of the Paris Declaration. The Joint Assistance Strategy for Ghana, G-JAS, which the donors adopted in February 2007, is currently top of the agenda.

The JAS, which the assistance players aim to prepare for all cooperation countries, is the object of strong Danish interest in Ghana and is currently being revised – on Denmark’s initiative. The strategies are part of the efforts to meet the Paris Declaration’s intentions on ’harmonisation’ and ’alignment’. The purpose is to synchronise the various donors’ strategies with the recipient country’s own strategies and development plans.

Ambassador Barlyng is a great advocate for the new coordinated approach, which in his words ’brings the development cooperation up to a holistic, higher strategic level’.

“Previously each donor operated with a complete range of isolated projects that involved a number of individual ministries in the cooperation countries. In that way we were helping to distort the countries’ development work,” he says.

The distortion resulted from a lack of internal coherence between the various donors’ assistance work. The recipient countries were simply not required to relate to an overall strategy for reducing poverty, and instead proceeded in a haphazard fashion.

Today the recipient countries have voluntarily agreed to think holistically. A key point in the Paris Declaration is that recipient countries must take over the ownership of the assistance, in a coordinating process with the donors.

“In Ghana we have slowly started to channel the assistance through the country’s Ministry of Finance, to help to get the overall system to function. It is very important that a country’s finance ministry itself keeps charge of the money,” says Stig Barlyng.

Photo: Klaus Holsting, Danida.

Assistance channelled through Ministry of Finance
A change has thus occurred in the assistance from earmarking of individual projects towards budget support, which requires capacity in the Ghanaian Ministry of Finance. And there is still a lack of capacity, acknowledges both Ambassador Barlyng and the Deputy Head of Mission Jan Pirouz Poulsen, who in practice leads the Danish assistance work on a day-to-day basis.

“Ghana has a capacity problem, not only in the ministries, but practically everywhere. However, good intentions are clearly present in the Ghanaian administration”, says Jan Pirouz Poulsen, who also confirms the description of the Danish approach by other sources as quite proactive: “We say to the Ghanaians: show us your strategies and your wishes, and we will see what we can do to help”.

Internally in the Ghanaian state apparatus there is still some reluctance over the assistance now being exclusively channelled through the Ministry of Finance. Previously when donors operated with isolated projects, the assistance was channelled directly to the specific ministries and government institutions which implemented the projects. The individual ministries were also in charge of the technical and political negotiations with the donors. Now the Ministry of Finance is gaining an important controlling and coordinating role. This involves a new distribution of power with loss of competence and portfolio in the individual ministries, which many civil servants find difficult to accept.

The tendency of money not ending up where it should is a constant threat to assistance in Africa, whether it is for individual projects via specific ministries, or as now channelled through one link, the Ministry of Finance.

The temptation for badly paid civil servants in African ministries to take bribes is strong, but according to several sources corruption is not a very big problem in Ghana.

Ambassador Barlyng confirms this.
“Fighting corruption takes place at all levels in Ghanaian society, and in an African context it works quite efficiently. The problem is the capacity in the Ministry of Finance. And that is where we are helping the Ghanaians: with capacity building both in the ministry and in the country’s National Audit,” says Ambassador Barlyng, who has not himself seen examples of corruption in the Ghanaian Ministry of Finance.

Access to world markets
Ghanaians do not need any help however with the process of debate in Ghana. It is free and lively and has its visible and audible expression in a sea of newspapers and radio stations, from which there is daily stream of incisive comment and opinion – including from those parts of society who do not agree that Ghana should receive assistance from abroad.

A frequent commentator, Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, executive director of the finance institute Databank Group, has several times stressed that it is ’trade, not aid’, Ghana needs.

He thinks it is better for Ghana – and Africa – to gain access to world markets, and that real, direct investments start coming into the continent.

“To develop our country we must start with farming. We need processing and storage facilities and infrastructure to transport products. And crucially, we need open markets for our products,” says Daniel Tetteh, who acknowledges that there is still some way to go before that scenario becomes reality. In the meantime it is important that there are external partners to keep the government on the right track.

“Aid in its current form is useful right now but is not sustainable in the long run,” says Daniel Tetteh, who considers Ghanaian society ’a lot more dynamic now than before, especially with democracy taking root.’

“I am generally optimistic about the future,” he says.

Daniel Tetteh is not the only one feeling optimistic on Ghana’s behalf. There are still many difficult problems, but practically everywhere in the country a new optimism can be detected, which is not found in neighbouring countries.

This optimism was strengthened after the smooth change of government in January this year, and was further supported by the very popular President Barack Obama visiting Accra in July on his first visit to Africa as US president.

Obama helped consolidate this optimism through a keynote speech in parliament, not far from the old Danish fort Christiansborg, where the Danish diplomatic representative Paul Isert toiled away at his work just over 200 years ago.

Carrying the torch for women’s equality

With the Global Call to Action Campaign on Millenium Development Goal 3 –MDG3, Denmark has taken on a special obligation to achieve the 2015 United Nations Millennium Development Goals, an initiative which has strong support from a number of the world’s most prominent leaders

By Anna Mogensen

A Nobel Prize winner from Bangladesh, the UN Secretary-General, the US Secretary of State and the President of Liberia.

These are just some of the more than 130 prominent individuals who have received a special MDG3 Torch. It symbolises their commitment to making an extra effort for women in developing countries in the Global Call to Action on MDG3 – Denmark's global campaign which aims to ensure that international society accelerates its work to achieve the third of the 2015 UN Millennium Development Goals: to promote gender equality and empower women.

The MDG3 Campaign was launched in Copenhagen in 2007. Progress towards the MDG3 objective of ensuring education and equal access to land and property for women in developing countries had been slow, so the Danish government initiated the campaign as a pressing “Global Call to Action.”

Together with Norway and Sweden, Denmark has a long tradition for providing assistance in areas that can strengthen women's rights and equality in developing countries. The Nordic countries jointly provide a third of the total budget for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The traditional Danish support, and a minister for development cooperation who is deeply engaged in women's rights, makes it natural for Denmark to commit itself to taking a leading position in the worldwide campaign. So says Professor Thomas Tufte of Roskilde University in Denmark, who has been working on awareness campaigns in developing countries for several years.

“It sends a valuable signal that it is a minister, who herself is a leader and a woman, who heads the campaign. It is fitting to focus on equality for women since it is an area where Denmark has a certain capacity advancement,” says Professor Thomas Tufte.

Change through women
One of the most prominent people adding visibility to the campaign is Muhammed Yunus from Bangladesh, a professor of economics and founder of the microcredit company Grameen Bank. In 2006 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his long-term efforts to provide microloans to the poor women of Bangladesh and create development from the bottom up. Muhammed Yunus was the first of the many prominent personalities to receive the special MDG3 Torch from the Danish government as a symbol of his commitment and desire to do something extra.

“I appreciate the initiative and congratulate the Danish government for having chosen to promote MDG3 abroad,” says Muhammed Yunus to Focus Denmark.

A large number of studies have shown that it is very worthwhile to support women in developing countries, since they are better than men at investing and managing the money they get. In Bangladesh, women traditionally do not have access to bank loans. Muhammed Yunus has since the 1970s been a strong ambassador for promoting the returns that will come from focusing on women's equality and rights.

“Denmark's MDG3 initiative supports our focus on women. It is with purpose that we want to strengthen their independence by providing them with the opportunity for an autonomous income, and today Bangladesh is a completely different society than it was just five years ago, because women have more empowerment and authority,” says Muhammed Yunus.

High-profile torch ambassadors
The impressive list of individuals who are representatives for making an extra effort for women's equality has ensured that the campaign has started well and has authority and weight by virtue of visibility, commitment and sustainability, thinks Professor Thomas Tufte.

“The high-profile individuals taking part provide one of the most important elements for a campaign to get off to a good start, namely visibility. The next element is commitment, and that is one of the key features of the campaign – to get involved and make a special effort,” he says.

“The third element that I think is worth emphasising is sustainability. To achieve long-term sustainability, these commitments must typically be embedded in organisations which can take them further. And since many of the individuals who have received the torch are government ministers and leaders of large organisations, solid embeddedness and long-term sustainability are likely to be achieved,” opines Thomas Tufte.

Civilian commitment ensure success
The campaign's more than 130 prominent individuals acting as representatives and VIP torch ambassadors have created a global wave of commitment.

But the visibility of the political elite is not enough, says Thomas Tufte. Ordinary people must also be involved in the campaign, so that they also can make an extra effort.

“The campaign seems to progress the furthest by virtue of those organisations and institutions that the highly reputed leaders represent. But it can be difficult to see how the ordinary citizen has a chance to be involved,” he says.

An ideal awareness campaign which manages to embrace all the world's leaders and the women in the villages, must first and foremost be based on citizen participation, Thomas Tufte asserts.

His view aligns with Muhammed Yunus’ perception that civil society is generally strong, and that citizens themselves know best how innovation and good ideas are linked to specific action and social responsibility.

“The foundation for our idea concerning microcredit is based on community dialogue. Legislation and institutional frameworks are naturally important, but without a movement from beneath you can't get anywhere in achieving equality and improving conditions for women. The institutional framework defines a statement and an initiative, but if people do not have the chance to act, it is of no use,” says the Nobel Prize winner to Focus Denmark.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark continuously follows up on the MDG3 Campaign's effect on investments in women's rights and equality and the generated effect on all eight 2015 UN Millennium Development Goals.

Tanzania’s largest bank

Denmark has invested millions of dollars in Tanzania’s largest bank, CRDB, which gives microloans to some of the country’s poorest. Microloans are viewed by some as the most important tool for the eradication of poverty. But it is not charity – it is business, emphasises economist and Nobel Prize winner, Muhammed Yunus

By Marlene Lyhne Sørensen

The New Fashion grocery shop is owned by Lydia Mbilinyi. She is a member of the Faraja Trust, one of the microfinancing organisations that receives loans and assistance from CRDB Bank.
Photo: Mikkel Østergaard, Danida.

When a poor woman in the village of Mafinka in Tanzania wanted to borrow money for a circular saw, she went to one of the country’s local co-operative banks and obtained a loan for the equivalent of 1,000 US dollars. Today, seven years later, she has a sawmill employing nearly 100 people which supplies timber to the entire local area.

The story is recounted by Jens Ole Pedersen, a representative of Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) and deputy managing director of Tanzania’s largest bank, CRDB.

In the early 1990s the bank was close to bankruptcy, but after an injection of some 3 million US dollars in financial support from Danida, the bank managed to survive the crisis. Today it has more than 60 branches and collaborates with about 400 cooperative banks, called Savings & Credit Co-operatives.

The bank loans money to the cooperative banks, which in turn provide microloans to their members, who are too poor to get an ordinary bank loan, because they cannot provide the necessary security.

“Microloans often have a significant effect on living conditions for the poor. They go from having nothing to having a monthly income, which puts food on the table and a roof over their heads, and provides schooling for their children,” says Jens Ole Pedersen. “The borrowers rarely have an education, but they have plenty of business talent.”

Business – not charity
Microloans gained significant ground in 2006, when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Bangladeshi economist Muhammed Yunus – the doyen of micro-credit pioneers. Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, a gigantic grassroots bank with 2,500 branches and about eight million borrowers among the country’s poor – especially women.

But although microloans are targeted to the world’s poor, they are not to be equated with donations from well-intentioned development organisations, Muhammed Yunus expressly pointed out during a visit to Denmark this summer.

“Microloans are not charity. It is business. It is not about helping the poor, but about creating structural changes that can provide a lasting solution to the poverty problem,” says Muhammed Yunus, who advocates a business model where the yield is not measured in terms of profit, but in usefulness to society.

Jens Ole Pedersen on the other hand is clear in his view that CRDB Bank exists to earn money:

“CRDB is not a philanthropic project and I don’t think there is anything shameful about earning money. But the lending rate to the co-operative banks is relatively low, so it is the co-operative banks which make the largest profit when they lend
the money to their members in the local society. In addition the surplus stays in the co-operative banks, so that the money can be used for new investments in the area,” says Jens Ole Pedersen.

The co-operative banks determine the lending rate, which fluctuates between 18 and 30 per cent, and the loans are usually paid back within a few months.

Almost a million borrowers
Both in Bangladesh and Tanzania, impressively high repayment rates of more than 95 per cent have been achieved from poor people – borrowers who the conventional banks will not touch. The large repayment rate is gained from organising the borrowers in groups, which has promoted a collective responsibility mechanism.

“They are liable to each other, and that has developed significant financial self-regulation in the co-operative banks,” explains Jens Ole Pedersen.

With support from Danida, CRDB Bank oversees the training of personnel and boards in the co-operative banks, and the principles for running a decent and law-abiding business are especially emphasised.

“We visit the co-operative banks once a month to ensure that the principles are being complied with. It won’t do, for example, if board members are sitting there giving themselves one loan after another. They must work in the members’ interest – not in their own. If the latter is the case, the board is replaced. So far it has happened five times in seven years,” says Jens Ole Pedersen.

The bank now has a loan portfolio of about 800 million US dollars, of which 10 per cent is used for microloans.

“The microloans comprise around 800,000 people who would otherwise never be able to get a loan. CRDB Bank’s objective is to reach 1.2 million in a couple of years,” says Jens Ole Pedersen.

Customers wait at the desk in CRDB bank in Dar es Salaam.
Photo: Mikkel Østergaard, Danida.

Loans for African entrepreneurs
The interest in lending to poor entrepreneurs in developing countries is growing, and in Denmark it has triggered a growing number of new initiatives.

2007 saw the opening of the internet portal MYC4, where private individuals, companies and organisations can offer loans to companies in Africa.

“We are building a platform which points the way out of poverty not least for African women, of whom only one per cent have their own bank account. The objective is to eradicate poverty in the world by the end of 2015,” says Mads Kjær, who is chairman and one of the two initiators of MYC4.

The investments take place via MYC4’s collaboration partners in Africa, known as providers, who find, screen and approve the entrepreneurs applying for loans: for example Aisha Namakula, who has a farm in Uganda where she rears chickens which are sold to supermarkets and schools. She wants to expand her business, and is applying for a loan for chicken feed and vaccines.

The providers create a profile of Aisha Namakula with the project and the desired loan sum on myc4.com.

Investors can then go in and offer a proportion of the loan sum at an interest rate of between 1 and 25 per cent. The smallest offer is 10 euros, and hereafter the process is based on the Dutch Auction principle, which gives the borrower the lowest possible interest. Currently (August 2009) the average interest rate for investments on MYC4 is 13.1 per cent.

Equal-minded help
One of the more than 15,000 investors who have put money into entrepreneurs in Africa, is Flemming Aanæs, a Danish management consultant.

“Previously I donated money to aid agencies, but I prefer to give the money as loans. It is a more equal-minded way to help, and I can follow what the money is used for. In addition the money delivers the maximum utility effect when it gets companies to grow,” says Flemming Aanæs.

He has no expectations or desire to earn money from the African entrepreneurs, but hopes the investments are sustainable. So far he has invested about 8,000 euros in cattle farming and a goldsmith.

“I am running with a small deficit because not everyone has made their monthly repayments. I could choose to take a higher interest, but I think it is the wrong signal to send. I am not doing it to make a profit, but in the hope of helping people out of poverty,” says Flemming Aanæs.

Investment results in surplus
The UN has the goal of halving poverty in the world by 2015, and Nobel Prize winner Muhammed Yunus believes that microfinance is the most important means of reaching the goal.

“The right financial structure is a fundamental tool because it covers all the economic aspects of life. Your savings, your children’s education, technological development, earnings, employment,” says Muhammed Yunus.

Jens Ole Pedersen of CRDB Bank agrees that a well-functioning financial sector is essential for creating development.

In Tanzania, it has even turned out to be good business for Danida to invest in an ailing bank sector. CRDB Bank was recently listed on the stock exchange, and Danida is now gradually selling its shares in the bank. The original injection of about 3 million US dollars corresponded to 30 per cent of the share capital, and that share is currently estimated to be worth between 15 and 30 times more – i.e. between 50 and 100 million US dollars.

“So in addition to having created many local jobs, the investment has resulted in a large surplus, which will be used for other development projects in Tanzania,” says Jens Ole Pedersen.

Nurturing democracy for Bolivia’s indigenous people

After 10 years, Denmark has completed a specific sector programme in Bolivia with great success. Since 2000, the indigenous population, which represents a large majority, has received the deeds to a land area of 140,000 km². At the same time, legislation and a new constitution now guarantee the indigenous people their rights

By Lise Josefsen Hermann

Photo: Scanpix.

Support for indigenous people has been a theme in Danish assistance since the embassy opened in Bolivia in 1994, and in 1999 a sector programme was established. By supporting democratization of the indigenous population in Bolivia, Denmark combines support for combating poverty, human rights and local development in one joint programme, in full agreement with the objectives of Danish development policy.

At the beginning of the 1990s, several indigenous people’s organisations had started laying claim to their own land. There was rising awareness that the indigenous people had just claims, and should stand fast on them. This was a development that Denmark wished to support.

At the same time, the large indigenous population was deeply marginalised.

“In Bolivia, being indigenous equates to being poor,” says Charlotte Slente, who has just completed a term as Danish Ambassador to Bolivia. “And since Danish development assistance in general concentrates on combating poverty, it is obvious to focus on indigenous people in Bolivia.”

Land deeds for indigenous people
Bolivia’s constitution from 1994 acknowledged at long last the indigenous people’s rights. Later, the land reform law of 1996 opened up to acknowledgement of the indigenous people’s right to their own land. The right to land is fundamental to indigenous people, and so supporting land reform for the benefit of the indigenous population is also a key point in the Danish support programme.

Danish development assistance has supported surveying and allocation of deeds to indigenous people’s territories covering 14 million hectares (140,000 km²) – corresponding to 12.7 per cent of the whole country. More than 30 different indigenous groups took part in the surveying of territories.

“Foreign support greatly helped accelerate the historic process of acknowledging the indigenous people’s rights in our legislation,” opines Albertina Castro, who has worked with many different development projects in Bolivia for a number of years.

Supporting essentials: llamas and Brazil nuts
After the surveying, a new phase began in the support programme for indigenous people. Now they had to learn to manage their territories themselves. According to the values and mindset of the indigenous people, the land must be collectively administered, which made it necessary to train experts in territory management. In collaboration with the University of Copenhagen, Denmark helped support the establishment of a university study programme in Bolivia that trains such territory management experts.

Denmark has supported the indigenous people’s movements in organising and making more efficient the cultivation of land and raising of livestock such as llamas and goats in the mountain areas. In the low-lying Amazon forest areas, Danish support has been given to organising the harvesting of Brazil nuts, which are an important source of income for the area’s indigenous people.

Bolivia’s first indigenous president
The start of the current phase of Denmark’s programme for indigenous people coincided with the presidential election in 2005. Political life in Bolivia was characterised by changes of government, uncertainty and conflict, especially from 2003 to 2005. There was great dissatisfaction with the political establishment among much of the population. Several presidents presided for rather short periods, and one of them had to flee the country in 2003 following angry protests.

Denmark supported the organisation of the election in 2005 – which turned out to be a turning point for the country. The Danish support included preparation of obligatory ID cards, which ensured that the poorest segment of the population could participate in the election. Denmark also gave support to election observers.

The result was the surprisingly clear election of Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, to head the country’s first majority government since the introduction of democracy in 1982. The election has subsequently accelerated the development and influence of indigenous people in the country.

Focus on combating poverty
It is often stressed, not least by Evo Morales himself, that it is the support of the indigenous movements that brought him forward and enabled him, as one with an indigenous background, to become the president. Many of those movements are among those whose organisational aspects Denmark has supported, and continues to support. It can be considered political to support some political movements, but not all. And indeed it is:

“Everything you do with development assistance is political. But we do not support elections directly. We support indirectly through combating poverty and providing support to the indigenous organisations. Our aim and focus is always on combating poverty. Assistance is about giving the poor a voice. It will always cause problems with the elite – the establishment. But that is the case in all the countries that Denmark supports,” says Charlotte Slente.

And according to Albertina Castro, the surveying also gave rise to conflicts in Bolivia. Not everybody was happy about the indigenous people starting to claim rights to their land. It also meant that it was not considered unambiguously positive in Bolivia that foreign funding, including Danish funding, helped to support the land reform.

Denmark supports ombudsman in Bolivia
In 2006, Denmark provided support to the constitutional assembly. The support was given to enable people from remote parts
of the country to come to political meetings in La Paz and Sucre, and for the work of preparing key documents for the formulation of the new constitution. The result was a new constitution in Bolivia, where the indigenous people’s rights occupy a prominent position.

Danish development assistance has been an important support in building a human rights ombudsman institution in Bolivia, which is currently processing thousands of complaints, often from the indigenous part of the population.

“This is one of the things I am most proud about regarding the Danish support in Bolivia, because it has become a solid institution in Bolivia. It means a lot to indigenous people’s rights that there now is a place which processes their complaints and actually takes them seriously,” says Charlotte Slente.

Danish support to Bolivia

Denmark supported Bolivia with DKK 151 million (EUR 20 million) in 2008. The programme for indigenous people has a total budget of DKK 180 million (EUR 24 million) for the period 2005-2009.

Written into the law
Danish development assistance has also helped to promote bills by helping the Bolivian authorities to include aspects concerning indigenous people into new legislation. In the healthcare area, it has been ensured that both western medicine and herbal medicine are represented in the health act. In education legislation, bilingual teaching of indigenous schoolchildren is being supported, and in environment legislation more consideration is being taken over just exploitation of natural resources.

“The Danish support has especially helped in getting indigenous women’s rights recognised and accepted, particularly concerning culture, language and local policy. And there is greater acknowledgement of the importance of respectful use of the country’s natural resources and respect for the indigenous people’s shrine ’Pachamama’ – Mother Earth,” opines Albertina Castro.

Supporters of Bolivian President Evo Morales participate in a rally in front of the presidential palace in La Paz October 20, 2008.
Photo: Scanpix.

Democratization process
At the end of 2009, the Danish programme to support the indigenous people of Bolivia comes to a close, but the democratization process with the indigenous population as active players continues. Bolivia’s government wants ’indigenous people’s rights’ to be included as a cross-disciplinary subject in all development programmes in Bolivia in the future.

When the former ambassador looks back on the results of the programme, it is with satisfaction, but also modesty:

“It is only Bolivia, the Bolivians, the indigenous people, who can take the credit for the developments in their country. The rest of us are just supporting something that is already in motion,” says Charlotte Slente.

And Albertina Castro is also delighted with the developments in her home country that Denmark has helped to support:

“I think that we Bolivians can be proud that the indigenous people are now integrated in our country’s laws and rules, and that extensive autonomy has been implemented so that there is for example more focus on protection of the natural resources,” she says.

Bhutan – from monarchic rule to democracy

Bhutan was an absolute monarchy until 2008, when the king introduced democracy. As in Bolivia, the democratisation process received Danish support. At the first democratic election – also in 2008 – Denmark supported Bhutan’s election commission with DKK 2.9 million (EUR 390,000). The support was used to make the Bhutanese familiar with all aspects of the election process.

Some specific results:

• A turnout of 79.9% at Bhutan’s first democratic election in 2008
• 400,000 voter instructions and ballots were printed and distributed
• 500 polling booths used in the parliamentary election were produced
• More than 6,000 electoral officers were trained during the election period

Denmark is the second largest assistance donor to Bhutan. Danish assistance cooperation with Bhutan started in 1978, and in 1989 Bhutan became a programme cooperation country for Danish development assistance.

An attractive time zone

With more than 1,000 staff in six UN organisations, Copenhagen is the world’s sixth largest UN city. In 2012 a new building will be completed, where all the UN organisations will be brought together at the same address in the Danish capital

By Anna Mogensen

An amazing sea view and easy access to The Little Mermaid will greet staff and visitors as they step out of the door of the new UN city, a construction that will be completed on Copenhagen’s waterfront in 2012.

But a nice view and a national icon pale in comparison with one of Copenhagen’s main attractions for a modern, international workplace: a good location in relation to time zones.

It is rare that Denmark is promoted on something as apparently mundane as this. But for the international UN organisations that operate on all continents, Copenhagen is attractive because the city by and large shares the same time zone as the rest of Europe, Africa and large parts of the Middle East.

The United Nations Office for Project Services, UNOPS, recently moved its headquarters from New York to Copenhagen, and has noticed how the time zones has increased flexibility.

“Because of the time difference in New York, it have been difficult to cover Asia and Africa, where we traditionally have most of our activities. It means a lot to us that we are now in the same time zone as Africa,” says Karsten Bloch, a Dane who is director of the global service centre in UNOPS.

Karsten Bloch points to other specific advantages of Copenhagen, such as its efficient international airport and the high level of education.

“The cost level in relation to salaries is high in Copenhagen, but it should be seen in the context of the educational level being correspondingly high,” he explains.

New knowledge across organisations
More than 1,000 staff in six UN organisations make Copenhagen the world’s sixth largest UN city.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark is the host of the UN in Denmark and is financing the establishment of the new UN city, which has been designed by the Danish architects firm 3XNielsen. The objective is that the UN city, which will bring together all the organisations at one shared address in 2012, both generates financial benefits and fertile synergies between the UN organisations.

“The UN organisations would like to exploit the benefits of collaborating with other UN organisations. UNOPS has moved its headquarters from New York and its regional office from Dubai to Copenhagen. UNICEF has a very large supply division in the city. A sizeable number of colleagues and the opportunity to collaborate across offices help you to think that it makes sense to work from Copenhagen,” says Susanne Hækkerup, who heads the Danish UN office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

UNOPS hopes that these kinds of organisational benefit are exactly what will be achieved by establishing the new UN city.

“You gain some synergies by being in the same building where you can make use of each other’s knowledge in the various practice areas such as HR or finance,” says Karsten Bloch and continues:

“In addition, we have an opportunity to gain a financial benefit. Currently the UN is located in three separate office facilities, each with its own reception, chauffeurs and administrative functions. We can pool these functions in the new UN city and thereby make a range of savings.”

UN in Denmark

UN health organisation WHO: Regional Office for Europe established in Copenhagen in 1957
UN children’s fund UNICEF: Global Supply Division established in Copenhagen in 1963
Nordic office of the UN world food programme WFP: Nordic office in Copenhagen from 2000
UN development organisation UNDP: Nordic office established in Copenhagen in 2001 (administration for junior advisors) and 2003 (country office administration)
UN population fund UNFPA: Nordic office in Copenhagen from 2004/05
UN global office for project services UNOPS: Moved its headquarters from New York to Copenhagen in 2006 (merged with the UNDP inter-agency procurement service office IAPSO in 2008)

Ellen and Ellen rule Liberia

The people of the impoverished country of Liberia in West Africa carry the memories of 14 years of bloody civil war. After the peace agreement in 2003, the country has largely disappeared from the international spotlight. But that does not mean the problems have been solved, says Ellen Margrethe Løj, head of UNMIL, the UN peacekeeping operation in Liberia

By Marlene Lyhne Sørensen

When Ellen Margrethe Løj needs to take stock of the state of affairs in Liberia, one of the things she checks is the building activity along the road to the airport, which is about an hour’s drive from the capital, Monrovia.

And judged by this criterion, Liberia is moving in the right direction:

“There is more building activity now than 18 months ago when I first arrived in the country. I see it as a sign of a budding faith in the future. People do not build houses for themselves using private means if they think they are going to flee tomorrow,” says Ellen Margrethe Løj during a trip to Denmark where she was born and raised, but only visits when she takes a couple of weeks’ holiday.

After a long career in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and many years’ experience in international diplomacy, including six years as Danish ambassador to the UN in New York, she was asked 18 months ago by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to lead the UN peacekeeping operation in Liberia, UNMIL, which includes 10,000 soldiers and 1,350 police officers. UNMIL’s mission is to ensure that the war which racked the country from 1989 to 2003 does not flare up again, and to ensure sufficient security for rebuilding the country, which is badly scarred after the 14 year-long civil war that claimed the lives of 270,000 people and displaced 800,000.

“I believe it is a peacekeeping operation that can succeed. The war was a conflict between warlords who wanted to have power and the natural resources. The population did not support warlords for ideological reasons, but because they needed food on their table. If development projects enable Liberians to benefit from their natural resources, then I cannot see any reason for them to go to war again,” says Ellen Margrethe Løj, the UN Special Representative in Liberia and the highest placed Dane in the UN system.

No trust in the authorities
Ellen Margrethe Løj makes no secret of the fact that there is a long way to go. Liberia is one of the world’s poorest countries. The infrastructure is in ruins, there is a lack of education, jobs, health centres, water supplies and electricity. And not least, there is a lack of security.

During the war, the country’s own army and police force were used against the local population, and as part of the peace agreement and to recreate trust in the authorities, a thorough clean-up in the ranks was required. The army was disbanded and police officers who had made serious violations of human rights were dismissed.

A new Liberian army is now undergoing training, and the UN is responsible for training the police force. Together they will gradually resume control and security in the country. The biggest success criterion is to make the UN peacekeepers unnecessary.

“One of the greatest challenges is the continued lack of trust in the authorities. It lies deep in the Liberians that they have to fend for themselves, and they become incensed when robberies and murders occur with impunity. If the police arrest a suspect, there is no trust that any prosecution will result. And then there is a risk that they may take things into their own hands.”

Ellen Margrethe Løj

Born 17 October 1948. Daughter of a farmer on Falster, Denmark.
Graduated from Copenhagen University in 1973 with a Master’s degree in political science, and took up a position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
Secretary of Embassy at the UN Mission, New York 1979-80
Counsellor of Embassy at the representation to the EC, Brussels 1982-85 Ambassador to Israel 1989-92
Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Denmark’s South Group (Danida), whose responsibilities include Africa, 1996-2001
Denmark’s ambassador and Denmark’s permanent representative to the UN
in New York from 2001 to March 2007, then Ambassador to the Czech Republic Since January 2008 head of UNMIL, the UN peacekeeping operation in Liberia

No blue flashing lights
That was exactly what happened in the spring of 2009, when a group of enraged citizens attacked a prison and a police station in southern Liberia, overpowered the staff and released all the prisoners.

In such highly charged situations it is Ellen Margrethe Løj’s responsibility to decide how many UN soldiers to deploy to prevent the situation from getting further out of control. And that can be a difficult balancing act, she acknowledges.

“On the one hand we must not start attacking the civil population. On the other hand, we must be sufficiently robust to calm tempers. Fortunately I have some adept military advisors to lean on.”

UNMIL ended up putting tanks on the street and prodding people with weapons, and according to Ellen Margrethe Løj that was enough to restore peace and order.

Before answering what the greatest challenge of the job is, she pauses a moment.

“It is whether you give the right advice to the government. The Liberian government is very receptive, and you need to be aware of the responsibility you have towards them.”

Ellen Margrethe Løj continues:
“I have been very occupied with continuing to step back and gradually hand over responsibility to the Liberians. It is their country – the UN is only present for a short period and a significant task is to support Liberia in a way which ensures that they become able to take on full responsibility for the country’s development. The UN has, for example, large white pickups, with large UN letters along the sides. My security people usually suggest that we put blue flashing lights on the vehicles and drive around any congestion. But I don’t want that. We must constantly reduce our footprint and give the local population space, because if we constantly take up too much space, then we do not develop the self-confidence that is needed.”

Traditional Liberian dancer performs during the observance of the International Day of Peace, as Ellen Margrethe Løj, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), watches.
UN Photo by Christopher Herwig.

Ellen and Ellen
For years men have ruled Liberia. Their greed and lust for power have flattened the country and traumatised the population. Today women head the West African country. In addition to the UN’s Ellen Margrethe Løj, there is another Ellen: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the country’s president. And that is an advantage when the UN discusses equality with the government, says Ellen Margrethe Løj.

“We don’t have to debate the usefulness of both genders being represented. They understand that. Instead we can discuss how to make it happen, and that is an amazing advantage compared to many other countries. UNMIL’s military, on the other hand, are not as used to female bosses, but they have had to learn to live with it. Actually, I don’t think so much that it is my gender as my administrative approach that they have had to get used to. It is more Scandinavian; slightly less formal and with slightly less emphasis on hierarchy. But they did frown at me a bit the first time I turned up unannounced in the General’s office.”

UN in Liberia

The UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia has the task of preserving the peace that was secured in 2003 after 14 years of civil war.
The force originally consisted of 15,000 soldiers. The number has been gradually reduced and now totals 10,000 soldiers and 1,350 police officers.
UNMIL assisted at the first democratic election in Liberia, which was held in 2005. The next election is in 2011.

No private life
When Ellen Margrethe Løj is in Denmark, she enjoys moving around without being surrounded by security people. In Liberia, where there is a lot of crime, life is quite different. Ellen Margrethe Løj lives and works in the same building, and when she ventures outside it is always with bodyguards and soldiers.

“I once sneaked out with the garbage bin, with no security people accompanying me. But only a moment later, a guard appeared who had been keeping an eye on me through a monitor. So no, you don’t have a private life. It is an interesting challenge, but personally it is tough. There is only work, and you are constantly on duty,” says Ellen Margrethe Løj, before she gets up to go to her car. A smile spreads across her face.

“Now I am going to drive – without security people!”

Aid to Gaza

The Gaza conflict has had the hardest impact on the Palestinian population, making them dependent on external aid. Denmark supplies humanitarian assistance through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA)

By Anna Mogensen

In the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the damaging effects of occupation, blockade and civil war have had the hardest impact on the Palestinian population. The Gaza conflict peaked most recently at the beginning of 2009 with fierce bombardment and a land invasion of Gaza.

Consequently the civil society is highly dependent on external aid. Denmark provides humanitarian support to the 4.5 million Palestinian refugees through UNWRA of around DKK 90 million (EUR 12 million) annually, and is the 9th biggest donor.

The money is used for the basic necessities such as food, medicine and fuel as well as to support UNWRA’s safeguarding of education, health and protection of the public.

During the Gaza war, UNWRA issued an emergency appeal for help for the civilian victims, to which Denmark responded with DKK 20 million (EUR 2.7 million).

The situation in Gaza is quiet at present (August 2009), but up to 80 per cent of the Palestinian population is still dependent on food aid.

“Denmark gives high priority to Gaza as a humanitarian focus area. There has been a war every year in Gaza since 2006, and the area has been subject to blockade since then. But except for a few brief periods, fundamental humanitarian aid has been permitted to enter – a list of just over 40 products that Israel allows into Gaza,” explains Rolf Holmboe, head of the department for stabilisation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. He continues:

“Anything other than humanitarian aid has been blocked, for example building materials so that people can start rebuilding their houses. The blockade also extends to imports and exports, which are necessary for the financial sector to get going. This means that economic development is still teetering on the brink of the abyss, and it keeps the population in an extended humanitarian emergency situation where they cannot get anything to work with and sell goods.”

Danish Gaza package 2009-2011

At a conference in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh in March this year, the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Stig Møller pledged to provide DKK 304.8 million (EUR 41 million) for the period 2009-2011, apportioned between humanitarian support and assistance, for rebuilding and development in Gaza.

Local infrastructure is one of the areas that has been most severely impacted during the war, the damage being estimated to exceed USD 500 million. Denmark’s assistance is given directly to and in collaboration with the population.

Source: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

Humanitarian stabilisation
During 2009, the Danish government has provided humanitarian assistance to the area in several ways.

Two Danish NGOs, DanChurchAid and Danish Red Cross, which are working in the area, have been granted DKK 10 million (EUR 1.3 million). DanChurchAid provides food, while the Danish Red Cross provides psychosocial help to the many children who have been severely traumatised by the war and the military operations.

“Gaza is an incredibly small place, and so the children get a very intense experience of the conflict. Experience shows that it is important to intervene quickly and help them to process their experiences in a positive way. So the Danish Red Cross was given a rapid grant to provide immediate psychosocial help for the children,” explains Rolf Holmboe.

He points out that humanitarian stabilisation is the foundation for future rebuilding and development processes in Gaza which in the long term will stabilise the area.

“The Danish project area is situated in the middle of Gaza, in areas severely impacted by the conflict. Those municipalities whose infrastructure is in ruins cannot engage in local development as long as they have to deal with destroyed sewers and water supplies,” says Rolf Holmboe and continues:

“We have done a lot to help the local communities with their immediate needs, so they can maintain their efforts in more long-term development initiatives. There will always be a grey zone between humanitarian assistance, stabilisation assistance and development initiatives. It is actually stabilisation assistance that is needed to lay the foundation for social and economic re-establishment, so that Gaza can come out of the crisis.”

The Danish project in Gaza is among those that have taken the lead in facilitating the shift from the immediate humanitarian effort to long-term rebuilding.

“It includes efforts to strengthen dialogue and collaboration between the democratically elected local authorities and the local population, so that social and other services are not monopolised by Hamas’ parallel structures,” explains Rolf Holmboe. He elaborates:

“In that work a special effort is made for children and young people who are particularly in danger of radicalisation, and for women who have difficulty finding space for social interaction and economic development.”